>S^' ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges OF Agriculture and Home Economics AT Cornell University * DATE DUE GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S A. Cornell University Library LC 261.S89 1859 The training system of education, inciudi 3 1924 013 374 024 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013374024 lO o TH^ TRAINING STSTSif"--^> OF EDUCATION, •Ci\ 02 V V/v.^ .0/ MORAL SCHOOL TRAINING POR LARGE TOVNS' NORMAL SEimAEY, FOR TRAINING TEACHERS TO CONDUCT THE SYSTEM. DAVID STOW, Hon, Secretary to the Noimal Seminary, Olaagow ; Author of ' ' Bible Training, a Manual fi Sabbath School Teachers," Ac, ELEVENTH EDITION, ENLARGED. LONDON: LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS. IIDCCCIilX. ' IKAIS UP A CHILD IS THE WAY HE SHOULD GO. '•PKEVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE. " THE CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN." PRINTED BY 8. AND T. DUKIT, CLASaOW, PREFACE TO THE ELEVENTH EDITION. The principle upon wliich this system was established, above thirty years ago, viz., that teaching is not training, (although the former is included in the latter,) and that intellectual teaching or instruction is not training the ' child,' as a whole, has been con- firmed, as sound and practical, in the experience of every school trainer who has pursued the system, and has been favoured with suitable school premises to conduct it. At and before that period, generally speaking, direct moral training, as a part of school education, was not considered neces- sary. Beligious instruction was viewed as synonymous with moral training, and this instruction, when actually pursued, was almost exclusively an exercise of the memory of words without the understanding. Whether in Bible or secular lessons, the usual method was— Pupils were required to commit to memory certain prescribed tasks at home, to be repeated the following day to the schoolmaster, without any explanation or picturing out — without, in fact, any intellectual training. The acquisition of religious and secular know ledge, therefore, if not got at, home, was left to be acquired by self-education in after life. Much has been said and written during the last twenty or thirty years on the bighly important subject of school education ; and various efforts have been put forth during the same period for its extension and improvement, by private individuals, and by the nation. The Committee of Council alone,, as a Government measure, has expended annually a large sum in promoting these objects, gradually rising from i30,000 in 1833, till the present yi-ar, when the vote of Parliament reached above ^£900,000. This expenditure, in assisting the erection of school-houses and IV PREFACE. preparing of teachers, etc., has been met by a very large snm in private subscriptions by various sects and parties, for the establishment of Elementary Schools ' for the poor and working classes '—greater eiforts, indeed, than had begn made dnrrng the previous centnry. Still, however, the youth of oar country are only partially educated. In fact, we are but at the threshold of real and sub- stantial education. For example — We have not any System of Intellectual and Moral School Training established specially to meet the peculiarly exposed condition of youth in large towns and manufacturing villages, although such present a new state of society comparatively with olden times, and, therefore, require a special antidote to the felt and acknowledged influence of Thk Sympathy op Numbers, in all concentrated masses of human beings — a principle of our nature, for good or for evil, but which, when ' let alone,' uniformly tends to habits of vice, crime, and ungodli- ness. Although the intellectual, physical, religions, and moral training of youth in towns, as an entire Moral MAchiNE, was our primary object in establishing this system in 1826-7, by means of a Model School for children, and Normal Seminary for training teachers to extend it, yet the few schools established on the system since that period, throughout the kingdom, cannot be accounted as more than mere models, making, therefore, a very partial and limited impression on the whole community. When we at first gave the system of education presented in tliese pages the name Training, the term was scouted and laughed at, as conveying no idea but that of ' training dogs and horses.' The practical exhibition of the system, however, shortly stemmed the .torrent, and now, educationalists, in writing and speaking, almost uniformly use the term, sometimes even when they only mean teaching or instruction. As the great object and end of the system was moral training, based on Scripture, conjoined with a thoroughly intellectual training on elementary and secular sub- PREFACE. V, j.ects, SO as to fit th« child, by God's blessing, for usefulness and happiness in this life, and happiness and glory in that which is is to come, we naturally adopted a Scriptural terra. The system has been termed Training Jrom the Scripture pre- cept, 'Train up a child in the way he should go.' For the accom- plishing of this, two things are evidently implied. First, That tlie trainer or parent must be personally present with the child, in order practically to train him ; and. Secondly, That the 'child,' as a wholcj should be instructed and trained in all his powers and faculties, intellectual, physical, religions, and moral, in the right way—' in the way he should go,' according to God's will, as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments — not ►merely to teach and train the child's intellect, but the 'child.' This duty, then, which is binding on parents to whom the com- mand is addressed, they are bound to fulfil, personally or by proxy. As the cii'cumstances and condition of society do not enable parents generally to accomplish this important work at all times — ' as they walk by the way,' ' as they sit down,' and ' as they rise up,' but must get assistance in some way or other by proxy, during at least some portion of the day — what so suitable for this purpose as the schoolmaster, who, from his education and profes- sion, may be expected to be fully qualified for such an important task ? These ideas, therefore, were kept steadily in view in prac- tically working out and arranging the system. While School cannot fully make up the want of family training, religiously and morally, it may greatly assist the most intelligent and best of parents, in towns and in the country, who struggle to accomplish both. And, in regard to careless and ungodly parents, school instruction and training are almost the obly available means whereby their children may be prepared, under God's blessing, for becoming faithful and efScient trainers of a future generation. Let us, therefore, begin with the young, without slackening or limiting our efforts for the improvement of the old, remembering the motto, ' Prevention is better than cure.' VI PREFACE. We may enumerate a few things which have been introdnceil, under this system, for elementary schools, for the use of which wo refer to their several chapters, viz. : — Physical Exeecises, as a means to an end, the end bein^ intellectual and moral culture. Singing, for the same object, and for cheerfolness. Simultaneous Reading, Answering, and the filling in of Ellipses. Play-grounds, and moral superintendence by the master, from the consideration that the usual.one covered school room is not a sufficient platform for the moral training of the ' child '— for the subduing of that master principle of our nature. Selfish- ness, iu all its phases, as it is developed in the real life of chil- dren, viz., at play. Oral Gallery Training Lessons on Scientific subjects, and particularly on Common Things. Daily Oral Bible Training Lessons. We may notice one peculiarity of this system which was a desideratum in education — the mode of communication provides that from the age of three up to sixteen, in the various grada- tions of schools. Initiatory, Juvenile, and Senior, children may be taught and trained upon one principle, and without any change of system. Also, that, by means of the Oral Bible Lessons, the same amount of intellectual instruction is communi- cated to children who cannot read, from the day they enter school, as to those who can read. This is a very important point for the consideration of Missionaries, Scripture Readers, and Sabbath School Teachers, as well as Elementary Schoolmasters. The Training System must be taken and judged of as a whole, and not in its disjointed parts. Some of its practical points may indeed be successfully pursued apart, but only as one entire machine for training the child can it be responsible for results. In this new Edition of the 'Training System,' we have adopted the following order :— PEEFACK. VU Sections I. and II. embrace the General Argument, from a variety of facts, for an improvement in the mode and extension o f iDtellectual and moral school instrnctio;i and training. Section III. The various practical points and distinguishing features of the System. Section IV. Hints and Memoranda to Practical Students. Also, Ground Plans and Elevations for Training School Premises. Section V. Practical Examples of Oral Training Lessons. Section VI. The Normal Seminary and Practical Working. Section VII. Written Testimonies from Parents, Clergymen, etc., as proofs of the practical eflBciency of the System. Section VIII. Progress of the System at home and in the Colonies, India, etc. Section IX. A few points of History and diflScnlties in the progress of the System. In drawing up this Treatise, our greatest difficulty has been, to condense into any intelligible form a subject so vast and impor- tant as the cultivation of 'the child,' and to compress within convenient compass what a folio volume could scarcely elucidate. Such a manual, however, as the present may.be useful, and even necessary ; lecturing on its principles is also useful ; but without actual practice, no man can become a trainer. We are thankful for the universal improvement, intellectual and moral, which all placed under the influence of the system have exhibited, and still more so for the proofs of decided piety manifested in so many instances. Our prayer is, that the Most High may be pleased still more to bless this system for His own glory, as one instrument, at least, for the intellectual, physical, religious, and moral -elevation of youth in our own and other lands. DAVID STOW. Glasgow, August, 1859. CONTENTS. SECTION I. THE GENERAL ARGUMENT. rago Ciup. I. What is Education? 1 " II. Primary Object in View — The Moral Elevation of the Masses in Large Towns, 21 — Dr Chalmers's Moral Economy for Large Towns, 23 — An ordinary Parish School converted into a Training School, 2+ " III. Origin of the Training System, - - 28 Local System of establishing Sabbath Schools, SO ' IV. Explanation of the Training System in reference to Moral Training Schools, equally applicable to Ragged and Reiormatory, as to Parish and Elementary Schools, and Normal Seminary, or College, 40 — The term Training - - - - _ '_ 49 " V. Condition and Wants of the Different Grades of Society — Sunken, Sinking, and Uprising, - 61 Ragged Schools. 66 —Mode of Bringing out the Most Degraded or Sunken Class into School, 69 — Agrf- onltural Population, 70 — Moral results, 75 — The Christian Parent in Towns, 75 — Pastoral Visita- tions to Families iu Towns, 77 — Influence of Sab- bath Schools, 79 — Effects of Early School Training, 82 — Sacrifice of Money for Moral Training Schools, 84. " VI. Different Systems of Education— Scottish Parochial — Prussian — British and Foreign — National School System of England — Irish National, - 87 Vn. Have Infant Schools failed? - - - UO X CONTENTS. SECTION II. STATISTICS OF GENKRAL SOCIETY— EDUCATIONAL AND MORAL. Page Chap. VIIL School Statistics, - - - 106 IX. Factory Statistics, - - 120 " X. Moral and Intellectnal Statistics of General Society — Domestic Servants, &c., ----- 127 SECTION III. PRINCIPLES AND DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE TRAINING SYSTEM. Chap. XI. The Sympathy of Numbers, - - - 148 " XII. Teaching is not Training, 153 XIIL The Force of Habit, - - 158 " XIV. Separation of the Sexes in School, - 163 XV. Picturing cut in Words, - - 171 XVL School Premises, 181— Gallery, 182— Play-ground, 189 XVII. Questions and Ellipses, . - - - 198 " XVIII. Simultaneous and Individual Answers, 203 ' XIX. Analogy and Familiar Illustrations, 208 •' XX. Emulation — Prizes — Places, 213 " XXI. Punishments — The nse of the Rod, 218 " XXII. Physical Exercises — Singing, 222 — Health — Means of Intellectual and Moral Training — Movements in Gallery, - - 229 XXIIL Singing, - 231 " XXIV. Speaking — Voice — Enunciation, - 231 XXV. Elocution— Reading, 237— Art of Reading, 244 " XXVI. Key to the First Spelling Book, - - 251 " XXVII. Bible Training Gallery Lessons— The Theory, - 260 " XXVIIL Gallery Training Lessons, orally oondudted, in Na- tural Science and Common Things, - - 277 " XXIX. Elementary Branches— Points of Training 280 Writing, 286— Arithmetic, Mental, and by Pen, 287 — Book Keeping on the Training System, 292 " XXX. English Grammar, - 294 XXXI. Mental and Written Composition, - 298 '• XXXII. Geography united with History, - - 301 " XXXIII. Drawing and Sketching, Catechisms, Gymnastics, School Library, Museum, Evening Classes, - 301 CONTENTS. XI Page jCuAr. XXXIV. Latin, Mathematics, - - - - < '-' 308 XXXV. The use of Monitors, - 813 " XXXVI. The School Trainer, - - - 318 SECTION IV. HINTS AND MEMORANDA TO STUDENTS. Chap XXXVII. On Picturing out in Words, - - - 321 " XXXVIII. Hints and Memoranda to Students on Paints of the Training System, - - , - 331 " XXXIX. Ground Flans and Elevations fur Training Schools, for Towns, Villages, and Large Cities, with Description of Plates, - - - 348 Galleries, 855 — London and City Lane Moral Training Schools in the line of a street, 3ti9. " , XL. Routine for Initiatory or Infant Training Schools, 372 " XLL A few Hints to School Directors, - 385 SECTION V. ORAL BIBLE TRAINING LESSONS. CiiAP. XLII. Practical Examples, - - - 390 No. 1, The Lord was my Stay, 396— No. 2, Even as a Hen gatheretb her Chickens, 398 — ~ No: 3, As the Hart panteth after the Water Brooks, &o., 401 — No. 4, As the Shadow of a Great Kock in a Weary Land, 404 — No. 6, The Man with the Withered Hand, 409. " XLIII. Selection of Texts for Daily Bible Training Lessons, 4 1 7 Narratives, Old Testament, 417; Narratives, New Testament, 424— Bible Emblems, 426— Parables and Miracles, 428. " XLIV. Oral Training Lessons in Natural Soieilce and Com- mon things, - . - - 431 Example No. I, The Camel, 433— No. 2, The Mole, 438— No. 3, Air a Conductor of Sound, 44 1. '• XLV. Selection of Subjects for Oral Gallery Training Les- sons on Natural Science and Common Things, - 444 List No. 1, Initiatory or Infant Department, 445 XU CONTENTS. Page Chap. XLV. — List No. 2, Juvenile DepartmeDt, 447 — List No. S, Senior Department, 452 — Miscellaneous Subjects, 454 — The Human Body and its Health, 457 — Apparatus, Diagrams, etc., 4C0, Chap. XLVI. Sketches for Oral Bible Training Lessons, - 463 SECTION VI. THE NORMAL SEMINAEY. Chap. XLVIL What is a Normal Seminary ? - - 484 SECTION VII. WRITTEN TESTIMONIES, ETC, Chap. XL Vin. Written Testimony of Parents, - - - 504 XLIX. Clergymen, Directors, Inspectors, etc., - - 615 SECTION VIII. Chap. L. Progress of the System, at Home and in the Colonies, - 524 LI. Introduction of the System among the Wealthy Classes, - - 650 SECTION IX. A FEW POINTS OF HISTORY AND DIFFICULTIES IN THE PROGRESS OF THE SYSTEM. Chap. LII. A few Points etc., - - - 653 Plate No. 1— The First Training School for Infants, and a Model and Practising School for Students, 1826-7, 554— No. 3. Training School for Infants, substituted, in 1829, for No. 1, 656— No. 3. The First Training School for .Juveniles, and Practising School for Normal Students, 1830, 666— No. 4. First combined Buildings erected for Model and Practising Schools, &c., for the Normal Seminary, 1837, 669. Minutes of the Committee of Council, - . . 550 Necessity for Training Second Masters or Assistants for Moral Training Schools, 563. Preparatory Normal College, - - « - - 563 THE TRAINING SYSTEM. SECTION I. CHAPTER I. WHAT IS EDUCATION? There is no subject that engages the attention of the public, more generally discussed, or less defined and understood, than, Education. And yet, properly considered, there is no sub- ject so vast or so important; involving, as it does, the temporal and eternal interests of man, as an inhabitant of earth and a candidate for heaven. All that can elevate him above the mere animal is involved in it. Instinct, in common with the lower animals, may do much to supply his bodily wants ; but true education, or rather training, alone fits him for those intellectual and moral pursuits and enjoyments that distinguish him as a rational, physical, and moral being. Education is a term representing what must be of vast importance ; and yet we can scarcely converse with two individuals who agree as to what is the meaning of the term. Almost all speeches, pamphlets, and letters on the subject, refer to the mere shell or coating of the matter — quantity and variety of subjects to be taught, and the kind of books to be read — the scriptural, elementary, scientific, historical, or to the size of school-houses, number of pupils, amount of fees,' 2 THE GENERAL ARGUMENT. [sECT. I. etc., and whether to be taught by monitors or masters ; but never treat upon the mock of communication, which is, after all, the most essential point ; or whether moral results can be pro- duced by other than direct moral means. The question, indeed, has been the theme of our most accomplished orators, in the pulpit, on the platform, at the bar, and in the senate ; and yet it must be acknowledged that the whole expositions, separate and combined, have not proved so explicit and practical, and therefore satisfactory, as to receive universal approval. All appear to agree in prescribing Education as a cure for the evUs of society ; and yet we are left to guess at what Education is ; it seems to mean anything and every- thing. The great and general mistake appears to arise from the fatal idea and practical error of substituting mere intellectual instruction for intellectual and moral training, and imagining that the ' chUd ' is under cultivation when the head or intellect alone is being exercised. Some writers have recommended that Education should embrace the cultivation of the heart ; but they have not pro- vided for it, nor explained the means by which it might be practically accomplished ; and when asked to state in what manner, and by what apparatus or method this should be effected, the almost uniform answer has been : ' Give the . children of the poor moral and religious instruction, and they will become virtuous and good ; ' just as if moral instruction were one and the same thing with moral training, and the mere knowledge of what is right synonymous with the doing of it. Education, technically considered, means simply that of the school. In reality, however, it comprehends that of the family, and the education, or rather training, which we aU more or less experience in the intercourse of society, child with child, and man with his fellows. Above all, it embraces self-education, to which every man is most of all indebted for his real knowledge and attainments. In school he has gene- rally received little more than the mere elements or power SECT. I.] 1 WHAT IS EDUCATION ? '5 whereby he may train himself, and too generally not even so much. The term education literally meaning ' leading out,' properly considered, means, ' a drawing out ' — an exercise of mind — in other words, training. School is primarily, nay, almost exclusively, in the public mind when Education is talked of, whilst in reality it is only Secondary in influence. But why not make school,, at an early age, primary, as it professes to be, and an instrument for intellectually, physically, and morally elevating the masses — modelliug.it after that of the family, with all those advan- tages and that power which are attendant upon one of the most influential principles of our nature, viz., the sympathy of numbers? The cultivation of mind and body in school has been too much disjoined ; and whilst the physical powers have not had their due share of attention, the intellect and verbal memory have been almost exclusively, and yet, after all, but partially cultivated. The moral affections and habits have not been properly exercised and directed. Intellectual instruction also has been substituted for intellectual training; in fact, they have been considered practically synonymous terms. Instruc- tion is not training, although it forms a part of it. The child has been held to be under cultivation when his intellect or verbal memory was being- exercised, as if he were neither a physical nor a moral being ; forgetting, or not attending to the fact, that the simultaneous cultivation or exercise of all the powers of our compound nature alone trains ' the child,' and secures the highest attainment of each faculty ; and that the sympathy of our nature is such, that the non-exercise or overstretching of one power or faculty, to a certain extent weakens the others — bodily health and vigour having a bene- ficial influence on the intellectual powers, and vice versa, whilst the exercise of the moral faculties and feelings gives a health- ful and energetic tone to all. What is Education? By some a child is said to be educated when he can read words of two or three syllables — 4 THE GKNERAL ARGUMENT. [SECT. I. better, no doubt, when he can pronounce every word of a sentence, although he may not understand the meaning of one half of its terms, and repeats sounds from memory without attaching any idea to them. He is no more than educated, say others, when he can write, cast accounts, repeat the rules of English grammar, and answer a few questions in geo- graphy ; and is simply educated, others still declare, when he has passed through the whole curriculum of the highest uni- versity. What Education is, has yet to be defined. In these days, the, most important of all the questions we can determine is, What is Popular Education ? What ought it to be ? The wealthy may choose for themselves, and are able to pro- vide privately the best masters and governesses, or send their children to boarding schools, grammar schools, or universi- ties.* They may be satisfied at any step, from the ' ab-eb- ib-ob-ub,' or ' ac-ec-ic-oc-uc,' of the old rote system of the English school, to that which embraces the most finished education. The idea, however, is now becoming more and more prevalent, whatever the practice may be, that, in the true sense of the term, our education is never complete on this side of the grave — that education progresses, or ought to progress through life — and that, although Methuselah him- self had lived to complete 999, instead of 969 years, his education would then only have been finished. Much has been said and written as to the deficiency of school education. Give us quantity, say many, and all will be well — our nation will then rise to an unexampled height of intelligence and prosperity. Give us education — education — increase the number of schools and schoolmasters, say they, and it will be the glory of our land ! We say, Give us quality first — quantity afterwards. In many parts of our country, and in towns especially, * The reader will Ijear in mind that our province in the cause of Education is that of the masses in towns and rural districts; not that of the wealthy in hoarding schools and public grammar schools — some things in which certainly require reformation, if not revolution. SECT. I.] WHAT IS EDUCATION ? 5 there is a deficiency of schools, but, the defects in quality are more to be deplored, notwithstanding all the noise and actual improvements that have been made during the last twenty years. Education, as it was, was little more than mere sounds. Education, as it is, except in a few select cases, is little better now. We hear much about secular instruction and religious instruction, and the public imagine that the rising generation are now being well taught, and even trained. But examine the pupils who have left four-fifths of our schools in town and conn- try, and what do they actually know? What have they been taught either of science or the arts, of history or of reUgion ? Where is their moral training? To what correct physical habits have they been trained ? Have they received proper notions of men and things ? Can they follow or remember the substancs of any discourse from the pulpit ? Do they appre- hend the plain meaning of a passage of Scripture, of science, or of morals, which they have read? Can they apprehend or 'take in' the substance of any reading, save that of those trashy publications which are alike dissipating to mind and injurious to morals ? Have they been trained to the habit of what books they ought to read — which they should choose, and which reject ?* In fact, have their habits of mind and manners been at aU moulded in any correct form ? And yet a few months of such school teaching will place them on the list of what is termed ' the educated ! ' Most certainly they are not morally trained. ' What the education is that will best enable a man to educate himself, ought surely to be the paramount inquiry. Is it Instruction, or is it Training, or is it both? Is it the amount of elementary knowledge .communicated, or is it that exercise of mind by which the pupil acquires the power of educating himself? Till withm the last few years, the term used to define Education was Instruction. Give elementary and religious instruction, it was and is still said. * The prodigious circulation 0/ very questionable weekly publica- tions, may illustrate this point. (! THE GENERAL AEGCMEKT. [sECT. I. and this wUl be sufficient. Teach the poor to read the Bible, and forthwith you will make them good, holy, and happy citizens,— kind parents, — obedient children, — compassionate and honourable in their dealings; and crime will diminish. Hundreds of thousands of our population hare received such an education. Are such the results? Have our political advocates for educating the poor — has the public Mt upon the right kind of education, or upon the proper mode of communica- tion ? Can teaching or instruction alone produce the results which are so fondly anticipated? Can all the telling, or teaching, or instruction in the world enable a man to make a shoe, construct a machine, ride, write, or paint, without training — that is, without doing f Can the mere head-knowledge of religious truth make a good man without the practice of it — without the training of the affections and moral habits?* Will teaching to read, write, and cast accounts, with a little geography and grammar, cultivate the child — the whole man ? Is this process of mere head-knowledge likely to uproot selfishness, pride, and vanity, and to substitute in their stead, kindness, generosity, humiKty, forbearance, and courteous- ness, without the practice being enforced in suitable circum- stances, as well as the theory communicated ? The boy may repeat most correctly, and even understand in a general way, the precepts, ' Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath,' 'Render not evil for evil,' 'Be courteous;' but see him at play among his companions, neither better nor perhaps worse than himself, nnsuperintended, and his conduct unreviewed by parent or schoolmaster, and what do these scriptural injunctions avail him when engaged in a quarrel? Reason is dormant, passion reigns for the time, and the repeated exercise of such propensities strengthens the disposi- tion, and eventually forms evil habits. In Education, as hitherto conducted in school, we may have * Of coiu'se we do not for a moment suppose that all the training in the world can change the heart ; but training, as well as teaching, is a means, in the use of which we hope to receive God's blessing. SECT. I.J WHAT IS EDUCATION ? 7 had in many cases sound instruction, but not physical, intellec- tual, and moral training. Schools are not so constructed as to enable the child to be superintended in real life, which is at play ;. the master has not the opportunity of training, except under the unnatural restrsAnt of a covered school-room ; and it is imagined, or at least stated, that children can be morally trained, without their being placed in circumstances where their moral dispositions and habits may be developed and cultivated ; as if it were possible to train a bird to fly in a cage, or a race-horse to run in a stable. , Man is not all head, all feeling, or all animal energy. He is a compound being, and must be trained as such ; and the varied powers of mind and body, although distinct, so act and re-act upon each other, that it is difficult to say where the influence of the one begins and that of the other ends. The intellectual, to a certain extent, influences the physical, and vice versa, whilst the moral influences both, and is in- fluenced by both in return. The most influential and success- ful mode of cultivating the cliild is, therefore, the daily and simultaneous exercise of his intellectual, physical, and moral powers. No injury can arise to his varied powers of mind or of body, provided they be simply fed and not stuffed, trained and not merely instructed. How, of in what way, do we propose to elevate morally, physically, and intellectually the masses of our population, amongst whom there is not, on the part of parents, either the opportunity, or, in most cases, the intelligence to accomplish this object? If done at all, it must be almost exclusively per- formed by the school-trainer. It is not now done by the school- master, and as parents are not mth their children gerteraUy during the day, it cannot be accomplished by them. Therefore our youth are growing up untrained, in a moral, in a physical, and even in an intellectual point of view, although it is announced that ' the schoolmaster is abroad.' In reality we have had much said and little done. The truth is forced upon our attention, that ' TEACHING IS NOT TBAINING.' 8 THE GENERAL ARGUMENT. [sECT. I.- What a school for moral, physical, and intellectual training ought to be, is not yet generally known, or at least is not apprehended. Even should the schoolmaster himself be trained, he is very rarely provided vpith the premises or platform on which he can practise the art, and thus mould and train his tender and important charge. It is not enough ' to teach the young idea how to shoot ;' he must also weed, prune, and water. And how can he labour without proper instruments — how accomplish the object if practically ignorant of the art? If he must train the 'child,' he must do more than merely exercise the verbal memory or the understanding. He must, as we have already said, cultivate by exercise the whole man, in his thoughts, affections, and outward conduct ; and this cannot possibly be accomplished within the walls of an ordinary school-room. What suitable school premises for popular education ought to be, remains, therefore, quite as undefined as the term Education itself. The two ideas are, in fact, inseparable. School accommodation, to teach or instruct the head, may be just what it has hitherto been, viz., the one school-room, not unfrequently dingij, dirty, and airless. What a school for 'training' the 'child,' according to the rule of Scripture and of nature must be, is quite another thing. The physical, intellectual, and moral propensities and habits, must have free exercise under a proper superintendence, and the opportunity of development in real life, which, to a child, is freely at play. We do not speak of jealous watchfulness, or of a system of hateful and hated espionage, but of one where the natural dispositions of children have free scope, and their youthful and joyous feelings find full vent. To effect this, however, there must be the training school pre- mises, and there must be the trained masters.* • During the last twelve years, the establishment of Normal or Train- ing Colleges has added considerably to the number of schoolmasters better instructed in the elementary branches to be taught, whether they have been trained to communicate the knowledge they possess, or not. The question is— Does the direct moral, as well as religions training of SECT. I.] WHAT IS EDUCATION ? 9 After practically working out the Training System, my object in transmitting it to the public through the Model and Normal Schools in Glasgow, was to accomplish these desirable points in popular Education. The system introduces two new and fundamental elements, namely, Moral Training, and Picturing out in words. The latter, as an intellectual process, is necessary to the former. The intellectual process and principle runs through the whole process of the lessons, secu- lar and religious. The 'picturing out,' embracing various points in the method, as we shall hereafter elucidate, enables the pupils to draw the lesson or deduction in their own lan- guage,* the master acting throughout the whole process as the trainer or conductor, and only furnishing facts which he ascertains that the children do not know, and therefore, for the sake of advancement, must be told. The pupils, there- , fore, give the deduction or lesson in their own simple terms to the master. Moral Training cannot be accomphshed without providing additional accommodation, and re-organizing the whole method usually pursued. Moral Training, although a distinct prin- ciple, was introduced in conjunction with the ordinary, branches of the public school. For the natural development of dispositions and character — moral superintendence by the master, and the intellectual culture and training of the pupils, a play-ground and a gallery were introduced. The week- day trainer, by the method of oral gallery training lessons, is enabled to communicate to seventy or eighty pupils a greater the child in school, form any distinct portion of such college prepara- tion for the high position of the schoolmaster as a prospective renova- tor of society? And when entering upon his work, are suitable premises provided, or by the hulk of enlightened and wealthy society even considered necessary ? These are, indeed, important and para- mount considerations in regard to the mass of our rising generation throughout the United Kingdom. * What we mean by the lesson is, the inference which every complete sentence or paragraph is intended to convey in secular or in sacred subjects. 10 THE GENERAL ARGUMENT. [sECT. I. amount of secular knowledge in a given time, than he could on any other principle. During the first hour of the day also, as much Bible knowledge may be communicated ' on each of the six days of the week, as is done in the best ' Sabbath or Sunday schools, leaving the remainder of the day for other branches, and for the moral training, out of doors as well as in-doors. This, too, for the youth of all ages, whether they can or cannot read.* Previous to 1819, when my attention was first strongly directed to the imperious necessity of measures being taken to establish some system of school training that might meet the moral wants of the sinking poor and working population, particularly in our own city and in other large towns, I knew of no machinery whatever for the moral elevation of children of any age save the training of the family ; and this was and still is wofully neglected. The only exception to this fact was the religious instruction which a very few enjoyed on one day of the week in Sabbath schools. Before and at the period referred to, the state of popular schools which had come under my notice, or that of any of my friends in the country and principal towns in England and Scotland, was in general of a most miserable descrip- tion. The ' knock-in,' ' cramming,' « rote system,' was all but universal— a mere exercise of the memory of words and figures. In a few schools, monitors were employed instead of masters, and this was thought to be a mighty improvement, because larger numbers could be taught, in some way or oilier, under one superintendent. Moral training in these days was not attempted, or even regarded as necessary ; nay, in many schools, amusements were engaged in by the teachers and pupils of a directly opposite tendency, the full particulars of • This system, therefore, would be highly valuable to Scripture readers, Masters of Ragged Schools, etc., and to Sunday School Teachers in particular, by enabling ignorant children to receive instruction from the day they enter school, equally with those who can read. SECT. I.] ■VTHA.T IS EDUCATION ? 11 ■which I should be sorry to narrate. All was an exercise of the memory of words and figures, very little of the under- standing, and none of the moral affections, although a portion of the children might daily or weekly spell and read a passage from the Bible as a school task. Teachers were not trained to their profession, as in every other art. No system of communication whatever was set forth to the world, to which they might aspire. Every teacher worked himself into any method he pleased, and just as he could, without guide or adviser, and was left, while serving, an apprenticeship to himself, to cut an4 carve the persons and minds of the children under his care entirely according to his own fancy. The candidate teacher had no model school to look at, far less a Normal Seminary to he trained in.* The gardener, the joiner, the jockey, the artisan must all be trained, and yet at that period it was never thought necessary to train the schoolmaster. To possess knowledge himself, and, to have the power of communicating it to others, were considered synonymous. The teacher was left to train himself, and to try his unpractised skill upon our children, while he was creeping on to some real or fancied standard of his own, too generally giving the shadow of education for the substance, neglectful of habits, mental and physical, and permitting a whole generation to grow up at the best with the under- standing not even half educated. A system, therefore, was wanting, founded on natural or training principles, whereby the child, on entering school at the age of three years, might progressively advance in intellectual, physical, mora;l, and religious training, up to the age of fifteen, years, on one natural system, and without experiencing any change in the principle of communication, except what is natural to advancing- years ; in the intellectual department, commencing with the first steps or broad outlines • Is this not the case still in five schools out of six throughout Great Britain, notwithstanding the stir that has been made of late years hy estaWishing Training Schools and Colleges ? 12 THE GENERAL ARGUMENT. [sECT. I. of every subject, secular or sacred, and gradually at each stage becoming more and more minute as the children advance in years and knowledge ; in one word, feedjng and leading — not stuffing or driving. An institution also was wanting to prepare teachers for conducting such a system, in which, iu fact, they might serve an apprenticeship to the arts of teach- and training. At that period, also, it was, and still is a very generally received opinion that education cannot be properly commenced with children under fiv§ or six years of age. This is perfectly true, when the process is confined to books and mere teaching or instruction — stuffing instead of feeding, forcing instead of leading or training. The mother, at a much earlier age, how- ever, sometimes morally trains at home, although, no doubt, oftentimes with very little mental instruction. At that time, no pubhc arrangements existed for the intellectual, moral, or physical culture of one of the most important stages of the life of man, viz., childhood, under five years of age — a period hy far the most impressibU, when habits are only beginning to be -V formed, ideas expanded, and propensities requiring to be re- } gulated, and when the weeds of nature have not as yet attained their full growth. At a later period, eveu at five or sis years of age, improper habits, bodily and mental (which are simul- taneously formed), must be undone before correct ones can be established. Several schemes have been set agoing, by way of .assisting parents in the superintendence of their children. Dame Schools before, and Infant Schools since 1820, have been established with a greater or less degree of success. The former were little better than asylums for keeping or restrain- ing children whose parents either could not or did not attend to them at home. The latter are more natural ; but still in them it is nearly all teaching or telling, not training ; and, unfortunately, what is lermed the 'Infant School System,' while suitable for a few months during infancy, is not of that progressive or natural kind that can be carried forward in the SECT. I.] WHAT IS EDUCATION ? 13 prosecution of the child's future education. The whole intellectual process is one chiefly ojF the memory of words, and of facts from objects and prints presented to the eye, or spoken about without analysis or picturing out. The materials or facts are neither mathematically laid nor logically deduced. Excellent materials they may indeed be to erect a building, but they are so jumbled and thrown together, as to be unfitted for supporting any solid superstructure. The child, on leaving an Infant School in which, if fortunate in having had a play- ground and a kind master or mistress, with much liberty and enjoyment, is forced to enter the ordinary parish, or Lan- casterian school, where physical restraint, confinement, and the rod are rigidly enforced, and where the child's buoyancy of spirit naturally gives way under the dull routine of sitting at desks, and poring over books in a close, oftentimes ill- ventilated school-room. I must afBrm that Education, in the sense in which it is generally understood, never has and never can morally elevate a community. Mere secular knowledge cannot by any possibility accomplish the work; and an extensive know- ledge of the history and facts of Scripture, apart from the habit being early formed of reducing its lessons into practice, is by no means a sufficient basis for moral training. Men may discuss the subjects, and yet hate the principles and pre- cepts of Scripture. ' Knowledge, indeed, is power,' but it is a power for evil as well as for good. To turn our eyes away from home, — in Prussia, where religion is excluded from school except on the occasional visits of the priest, and the master is prevented by law from introducing the only standard of moral training, viz., the Bible, as his instrument for the work,— what is the moral character of its people? Or in Ireland, in the National Schools, where only extracts from Scripture are permitted to be read or explained, the contents of which cannot disturb the conscience of any one, be he who he may — do we perceive knowledge,^ or virtue, or good order, or contentment prevailing ? In France, where the 14 THE GKNEKAL AKGUMKNT. [sECT. I. Bible is entirely excluded, it has been clearly proved that crime extends with what is termed education; and if we look narrowly at home, we shall find that even with the reading of the Scriptures in school, vice and crime are not diminished, nor are the manners and habits of the masses at all improved. We ought to read the Scriptures, it is true ; but the command is not simply ' read,' but ' search — search as for hidden treasures.' The lessons, as well as the facts of Scripture, must be enforced on the understanding, and reduced into practice in real life, under proper superintendence, ere we can hope that the Word of God will be influential in elevating man in all the virtues and graces of social life, or in fitting him for the enjoyment of a pure and holy God throughout eternity. It is a serious mistake to suppose that the reading or mere knowledge of Scripture history and facts is.all that is sufiScieut to make a good man. Motives must be implanted more fitted to affect the heart, if we expect the life and conduct to be influenced. Scripture says, ' Knowledge pufi"eth up, but charity (or love) edifieth.' It does not stand alone, like mere knowledge, but extends its effects in every direction. Many are influenced by a sense of the stern virtue of honesty — ' Thou shalt not steal,' — and they would not pick their neigh- bour's pocket for the world ; but the same persons who may reverence the words of the eighth commandment, oftentimes steal their neighbour's good name without a pang, and are entirely unmindful of the command, ' Be pitiful, be courteous.' They practise the sterner virtues of Christianity, it may be, but make nothing of the commands, ' Whatsoever tfdngs are honest, lovely, and of good report, think on these things,' and do them. Hence, without the direct influence of Christian principle, polished worldly society sometimes presents that outward courteousness, pohteness, and forbearance which ought to be the natural fruit of Bible principles, and which religiously instructed children would present, provided they were trained to practise its virtues ; provided the weeds of sin were tossed about, and not permitted to grow luxuriantly, SECT. l.J WHAT IS EDUCATION ? 15 and that their habits were superintended and caused to be rightly exercised by parents and teachers. A thorough Bible and moral training, by G(^d's blessing, would make the most perfect gentleman, the most sincere Mend — would promote the graces of kindness, and forbear- ance, and sincerity — would extinguish vice and crime, and also promote cleanUness, order, and attention to health. Bible and n.oral training, that is, teaching and doing, ought never to be separated in the education of young or of old. In our view — Education consists not in the mere amount of knowledge com- ■ municated, but in the due exercise of all the faculties wkereh/ the pupil acquires the power of educating Mmsdf. It is a mould for the formation ofcharactesr. We have no such education generally in school ; and until we have it for the young, at an age when the understanding is comparatively unwarped by prejudice, and the feelings tender and susceptible, it is folly to look for the moral eleva- tion of our country during succeeding generations ; and as for a milleniiium, we understand it simply to be the blessed conse- quence of a thorough infusion oi practical Bible principles (not mere intellectual knowledge) into the understanding and affec- tions of young and old, rich and poor. From the facts which I am prepared to lay before my readers, I ask, would not the uni- versal extension of Bible and moral training, as part and parcel of popular education, under the blessing of God, pro- duce like glorious results ? I assert-that it would; and in doing so I would not exclude but increase every other means of knowledge and of grace; I would treble our pastors and places of worship, our social and Christian meetings, and our week-day and Sabbath schools ; but these last I would eventually extinguish for the family fireside, with the father as the priest and instructor, so soon as we had ■ the Moral Training System estabUshed in week-day schools, under Christian men well trained to the art, by which the pupils would receive, each morning of the week, as much religious 1 6 THE GENERAL ARGUMENT. [sECT. I. instruction as they possibly could in a Sabbath school, and with this most important addition— the seeing that Bible precepts were reduced into erery-day practice, in the real life of the children, at play. It must be apparent thatmoral training cannot be conducted without being at the same time intellectual, and that morals must have a standard, the only perfect and unchangeable one being the Word of God. This principle is so self-evident, and Ues so completely at the root of every attempt in culti- vating the entire child, that I do not conceive it necessary to argue the question here with those who are opposed to reli- gion in connection with popular education. Bible instruction might be rendered a vastly more interest- ing, and a more intellectual as well as improving exercise than it usually is, both as respects the subjects treated of, and particularly the mode of communication. The method of communication ought to be more natural — the natural picture ought to be fully and clearly drawn before we attempt to ehcit the lesson. The emblems of Scripture are an inexhaustible field, even intellectually. It must be admitted by all, that the preaching of the word of truth is the appointed means of conversion, and of extending a knowledge of salvation by Christ. Keeping this steadily in view, the question is. What is preaching ? All must acknowledge that the highest and most authoritative preaching is that by minis- ters who are specially set apart to the sacred office, and 'who give themselves wholly to prayer and the ministry of the word.' We highly value the office of the gospel ministry. But is there no other mode of preaching,* or promulgating the word of life ? Is the same discourse which is couched in language suited to adults and the cul- tivated mind, equally applicable to, and apprehended by, the youthful and the ignorant 1 Is it understood at all ? Are not such discourses to very many the same as if spoken in an * We beg our readers to remember that we use the word not in the accepted sense, but in its real and scriptural meaning. 8KCT. I.] WHAT IS EDUCATION ? 17 unknown tongue 1 May not a father preach the gospel to his children ? May not the tender mother do so to her infant offspring ? Does sie not do so often in strains so simple that they reach the heart ? May the schoolmaster, who represents and takes the place of the parents for a portion of each day, not promulgate the gospel to the young, by analyzing and picturing out the daily Bible lesson? And may not the prayers and endeavours of parents and schoohnasters be effectual to the conversion and Christian improvement of the young committed to their charge ? Nay, without such addi- tions to the pulpit ministry of the word, may not the young be robbed of the great purposes for which the gospel was sent ? No restriction ought to be laid upon the parent or the minister as to the fuU exposition and enforcement of Scripture truth upon the understanding and consciences of all ; but the province of the schoolmaster I conceive to lie more in training in the elements of Divine truth, just as he trains or ought to train in the element of any and of every secular branch of education which he is required or entrusted to teach. This he can best and most satisfactorily accomplish by analyzing and picturing out the emblems, precepts, history, etc., of Scripture, along with his pupils, in a simple and natural man- ner, with the moral lessons they naturally furnish — at the same time seeing that these are reduced to practice while the chil- dren are under his care, and unfolding and rendering visible to their mind's eye those innumerable emblems which, when pictured out, present practical truths rich as the golden mine, and sweet as honey to the taste. The natural picture is always pleasing to the human mind — the lesson deducible is sometimes not so palatable. It is no trifling matter to be the means of elucidating the leading points of Scripture, and of vivifying every paragraph of it, and thus of assisting the parent, and preparing all for appre- hending the meaning of those innumerable Scripture terms ' which are employed, and those allusions which are made during the public preaching of the word. The time allotted 18. THE GENERAL ARGUMENT. [sECT. I. to a sermon does not enable the minister to unfold or picture out the emblems contained in any text or passage so fully as in a training gallery lesson.* Such, then, I conceive to be the peculiar province of the schoolmaster. Such we make Bible training in school ; and such is the kind of scriptural education, united vrith other elementary and scientific branches, we wish to see established in all the schools of Great Britain and elsewhere. Mere Bible reading, or explanation, or question and answer, will not do; but by picturing out by analogy and familiar illustra- tions — by simplifying every term, and unfolding every point that is complex — the youngest chUd present may be enabled to apply the lesson to himself. The schoolmaster, if a trainer, has the peculiar advantage over every other class of persons, of the sympathy of numbers, of which we shall subse- quently speak. Mind is thus brought to bear upon mind, and every variety of temperament and mental power can be made to operate upon all. Some children more easily apprehend facts, others imagery, and others reasoning, All, however, learn when the system is properly pursued, what any one present in the gallery knows ; and, when such oral lessons are properly conducted, all are stimulated and benefited by the power of SYMPATHY. It is because in the family and in the school, the religious instruction has generally consisted in committing words or mere sounds to memory, or in some * We shall subsequently show by examples that what is termed preaching, or dogmatical teaching, apart from the point or picture in hand, by the school-trainer to his pupils, is directly opposed to the Training System. He must simply analyze each point as he proceeds- add facts to those he ascertains, by questions and ellipses, the children do not know and assist them in picturing out in words the subject- matter of the lessons, whether read or simply orally conducted. And then the children must be, and if the exercise be naturally conducted, they will be, prepared to give the lesson or deduction in their own terms, more or less simple, according to their age and literary acquire- ments. This, on all subjects, secular or sacred, is the distinctive process in the intellectual department of the Training System, viz., the pupils give the lesson, not the master— he is the trainer or conductor. SECT. 1.] WHAT IS EDUCATION? 19 slight or incomplete explanation by the parent or teacher, a task in which, half asleep sometimes, the children take no part ; or in questions and answers upon the mere facts or history of the passage, that the public ministrations of the pulpit are so partially effectual upon a common audience. How very little of a sermon, either in its facts or lessons, is generally remembered ! We have examined persons of all ages, year after year to the present day, and it surprises us how little they recalled. One or two of the heads may have been im- perfectly recollected, or perhaps the text, but the general bearing of the subject, or the lessons deduced, were seldom remembered. That the Word of God may be freely extended, the minds of the young must be trained to the understanding of it. Scripture knowledge, then, in the wide extent of its precepts, promises, emblems, history, etc., ought to be daily communicated in a simple and natural manner by analogy and familiar illustrations, and in language suited to the age and capacity of the pupils, and these made the basis of all the practical moral training during each day. The same natural and training process should be proceeded with in the ele- mentary branches. One gaEery training lesson on some ; point of natural history, physical science, or the arts of life, particularly in regard to practical and common things, ought i to be orally conducted daily without a text-book, in additiou / to the ordinary reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, and other \ lessons, — singing, to cheer and animate, to soften and subdue the feelings, — physical exercises, to arrest and secure the ( attention, — play, to animate and invigorate both body and mind, — superintendence by the master, to observe the chil- dren, and afterwards to train the understanding to the true nature of their conduct, and to cultivate proper habits of thought as well as correct behaviour — the sympathy ofnumhers being used as the one grand actuating and moving principle in every department — a principle in every society, consisting of young or old, uniformly tending to good or evil. 20 THE GENERAL ARGUMENT. [SECT. I. These points and these principles I desire to see added to what previously existed of a desirable kind in popular schools, and all the ordinary elementary branches adapted, in the mode of communicatiou, to the same 'picturing out' sys- tem — the same system of training. We owe an apology to the reader, for our plain and simple style, but more particularly for the repeated allusions to great principles in elucidating the various points of the ^system, which to many may appear unnecessary and oppres- sive. But, from experience, we know, that to the ordinary reader and practical student, even more frequent repetitions are necessary, in order to break down that pyramid of prejudice which habit has raised against novelty or change, even although such novelties and changes are a return to nature, simplicity, and scriptural example. The great difla- culties which we have to contend against and overcome, are the facts we announce — that secular, religious, and moral instruction is not training, although it forms a part of it — and that the mode of education suited to an agricultural popula- tion, is not necessarily, and actually is not, equally well suited to, or sufficient in towns. To sum up the argument, teaching IS NOT training, and the instruction of the head is not the training of ' the child '—the whole man. SECTION I. CHAPTER II. PEIMAEY OBJECT IN VIEW — THE MORAL ELEVATION OF THE MASSES IN LABGB TOWNS. The moral elevation of the poor and working classes, more particularly of cities and towns, appears to us the most im- portant object that can engage the attention of the statesman, the philanthropist, and the Christian. It wUl, of course, be borne in mind, that in the process of elevating the moral sentiments and conduct, the intellectual faculties and physical habits must of necessity be cultivated. Our cities are the strongholds of vice and of virtue ; — tliey are also the citadels of power ^they hold the destiny of nations. Witness Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, etc., in 1848-9, and some of these and others in bygone times. The question is not, whether land or manufactures preponderate in the scale of wealth, to solve which problem would not advance us one step towards our object. PoKtieally and morally, the question is, on which of these two departments of our nation's power does our safety depend — on the agri- cultural labourer, for whom much has been attempted to be done ; or on the city weavers, spinners, mechanics, and arti- sans, who have been left very generally to provide means of improvement for themselves — how wry partially accomplished ? Individually and socially, the question is of infinite importance. Systems of national education have been provided for the rural population of Scotland, Prussia, France, and Holland, and to a certain extent also of England and Ireland ; but none have been adapted to the condition of towns. This is a 22 THE PEIMAET OBJECT IN VIEW. [SECT. I. point from which every government, and nearly every educationalist, seems to have shrunk. In no one of the bills of late years introduced into the British Parliament in favour of National Education, has the question of towns been considered. "We have also been particularly surprised at this general fact, on perusing accounts of the Prus- sian system, and in conversing with practical men from various parts of Germany, which country is professedly the most thoroughly provided in the world with schools. The more ancient and celebrated parochial school system of Scotland provided only one school to each parish. The towns are left to private adventure. The sympathy of numbees — the most influential of all practical principles, and which gives to large towns all their power — seems to have been entirely overlooked in the arrangement of educational systems. Farming, tilling of land, gardening, etc., of late years have been warmly re- commended as parts of education — all unquestionably excellent in their way for a rural population. But these cannot be conducted in a city, where, in suitable situations for the mass of the population, it is difficult, except at an enormous cost, to find space enough for the erection of even school-houses without play-grounds for healthful exercise and moral super- intendence, development of character, and training. The inhabitants of our towns, therefore, are permitted to sink in the scale of morals, intelligence, and correct habits. "We desire not to overlook, on the contrary, we are fully aware of, the sad and too generally depraved condition of our rural population, and particularly of farm servants. If this class is to be improved, it cannot be accompUshed by mere teaching, as hitherto pursued, but by moral training schools for the rising generation. Farm servants are so migratory, and their habits so formed, that beyond benefiting a mere fraction of their number, we have no hope of much improvement from the application to them of any system of moral training. The young are the only hopeful portion, many of whom find their way into our workshops, city factories, and families, as well SECT. I.] MORAL ELEVATION OP THE MASSES. 23 as engage in rural pursuits. Whilst our primary object is, to present a system of school training suited to the concentrated masses in towns, we must bear in mind that our large cities are made up, in a great measure, gradually and imperceptibly, by those innumerable rills which flow in from country districts, therefore it is vastly important that our rural schools should be conducted on the same natural. Christian, and intellectual principle, so that we should not have, as now, a continual flow into our towns of a rude and half-educated increase to our abeady sinking and sunken population. Let us have, therefore, the complete Training System in the country, as well as in town schools, keeping always in view, that the high price of ground in towns will always be an increased difficulty, and that the larger the town, from this circumstance, the greater will be the difficulty ; just in proportion as is the im- perious necessity and importance of the object. Towns have not entirely escaped the notice of Christian philanthropists. That great and practical writer on the moral economy of large towns, the late Dr Chalmers, proposed and carried into efi'ect the parochial economy of country parishes in his town parish of St John's of Glasgow, viz., church and schools, with other agency, and with the addition of Sabbath schools, and a Savings Bank, and deacons for taking charge of the poor ; he considering these as that machinery by which a town population might be morally elevated. Dr Chalmers, however, omitted tTie introduction of moral school training into the four schools which he established in that parish — which we consider an essential element for the moral and intellectual cultivation of youth in towns, and even in the country. These schools were arranged for instruction - or teaching — ^not for carrying out family training in schoolj or of laying hold of the principle of the sympaOiy of numbers in the real life of the child. Such an addition for children of all ages from three to fifteen years, was necessary to render his whole economic system complete and efficient. This defect was early apparent to my mind during its practical working, 24 THE PRIMAEY OBJECT IN VIEW. [SECT. I. (axcellent teaching schools as those of St John's were in many respects,) which left the hopeful and impressible young to be trained how and in what manner, and by whom they pleased in the streetSj and only by the teacher during the restraints and confinement of a school-room. Much good was unquestionably done in that parish through the Doctor and his parochial agency, and which was continued by his worthy successors in the pastoral office. But, as one of these agents, I found a sad gap in the machinery — one of infinite importance, which it was and still is now my desii'e to fill, viz., moral, intellectual, and physical school training, in addition to religious and secular instruction. I held the office of Sabbath school teacher and elder in one district con- taining 300 inhabitants, and that 'of deacon for the manage- ment of the poor, etc., in another containing 500 — ^to which latter district there were also attached an elder and a Sabbath school teacher. My knowledge of these districts, and of the parish generally, led me to this conclusion, that notwith- standing the visits of minister, elders, deacons, teachers, etc., to that portion of the family they might happen to find at home when they made their calls, — for want of the new and addi- tional machine we contend for, with the exception of a very few children in some of the Sabbath schools, the young generally continued to grow up with rude, grovelling, and un- godly habits. Instructed or taught they were to a certain extent, it is true, but they were not morally trained. An Ordinaey Parish Juvenile School converted iKTO A Training School. Some years previous* to the providing of complete and uni- form buildings for the accommodation of the Normal Seminary, an additional model or practising school was required for the training of the students. As a trustee and a director of St John's Schools, therefore, I selected for this purpose one of • Namely, in 1830. The complete buildings were opened in 1887. SECT. I.j MORAL ELEVATION OF THE MASSES. 25 the foui; juvenile schools which Dr Chalmers had erected. This was gradually converted into a moral training school, byerecting a gallery capable of seating the whole scholars, 140 in number — by purchasing a contiguous space for a play-ground, or the uncovered school-room, and adding suitable out-door buildings — by introducing a daily course of oral training lessons on natural science in common things, as well as on Scripture, etc:; — by moral training, including superintendence out of doors in the play-ground, as well as in the covered school-room — and, at the same time, by training, the Blaster and assistant to conduct the system in question. Some may consider it presumption in us to propose any additions to, or improvement upon the plans of Dr Chalmers, in regard to the moral and social economy of large towns ; but I only repeat what was published more minutely, and at greater length, in 'Moral Training,' 1833-4, when the Doctor was alive. "We are too great admirers of the system of the Rev, Doctor, which he so luminously proposed and en- deavoured practically to carry into effect, to say or do any- thing that might, mar his otherwise beautiful and practical plans ; but we also have a duty to perform, from which we cannot shrink. Twenty, years' experience under the Doctor and his successors so far enables me to form a judgment in the matter ; and year after year only deepens the impression in my mind of the imperious necessity for the addition of the Training System now proposed, and which wherever faithfully followed, has been uniformly successful — not indeed 6y mere portions being adopted, which are common enough now through- out the length and breadth of the land, but the entire principle, including Bible and Moral Training — not the machinery or apparatus without the trained workman, or the well-trained workman without the suitable premises.* * During the first fifteen years from the establishment of our Model Schools and Normal Seniiinary, every school established anywhere, by our students, for training the ' child ' as a whole, was simply termed Training School; viz. — Infant Training School, Juvenile Training School, or Senior Training School. 26 THE PRACTICAL OBJECT IN VXEW. [SECT. I. In regard to ordinary school teaching in towns, even where the Bible is read, we have little or no hope of its having much effect, or of its reaching or reclaiming the adult thief, aban- doned female, the pickpocket, or the dissipated, — churches and ordinary schools do not reach them ; at the same time, I would follow such to the last with every appliance that wisdom can devise and the gospel enjoins. 'Cure,' 'cure' — some plat- form or project for restoration or cure, is the point on which philanthropy generally expatiates. The vicious, the criminal, the abandoned, who are beyond the pale of pulpit, pastoral, or missionary influence, engross the attention, while our neglected youth are fast filling up their ranks. Almost any sum can be had for prisons, bride- wells, reformatories, penitentiaries, and convict-ships, to cure or restore criminals. How little, how very little, is given to prevent crime ! The public still require to be trained to the practical lesson — prevention is better than cure. Experi- ence proves that deep-rooted habits present an almost insur- mountable ^barrier to a change of conduct. Substantial in- stances of restoration, indeed, are extremely rare. We have also little hope of any great improvement on the mass of the careless, non-church-going, thoroughly worldly population, who have arrived at maturity, and who, before fifteen years of age, have not received a religious education at home or in school. We regret that too abundant proofs can be given, that this conclusive opinion is well founded. Aijalogy bears us out, that early training alone promises suc- cess. The young tree, the young horse, the young soldier, the young artisan, are all more easily trained than the old ; and while we should unquestionably provide for the adult, we must confess that our hopes are with the young, and the younger the better, who are to become the parents of the succeeding genpration. A blessing does indeed sometimes rest on the means applied, even to the dissipated and the criminal ; and that none may despair, we have one example in Scripture, viz., the thief on the cross. SECT. I.] MOEAI, ELEVATION OF THE MASSES. 27 In this Treatise, my object, then, has been to show, while improvements have taken place in education during the last twenty years, that still the wants and condition of the people are not met by a natural and practical system fitted to elevate them morally and intellectually, and, by a necessary conse- quence, physically, nor to meet the exposed condition of the youth of large towns. Whether the Training System is, or is not, the best that may be presented to pubhc acceptance, we are prepared, after the experience of above a quarter of a century, to prove that it has at least been efficient. It is my earnest desire, that its extension may, by the blessing of God, greatly promote the work of youthful cultivation, and that it may serve as one mode or system (already triumphantly suc- cessful), until another more simple, more natural, and there- fore more efficient, is presented by the innumerable host of educationalists who have entered the field during the last twenty years. SECTION I. CHAPTER III. OKIGIN OF THE TRAINING SYSTEM. Important improvements and even novelties in general edu- cation may be developed by apparently trifling circumstances, some of vphich, in regard to the system in question, may be worthy of notice. Providential circumstances led my thoughts to the necessity of doing something ^rac«ica% for the moral, physical, and intellectual elevation of the poor and vrorking classes, instead of spending time in fanciful theories, and useless expressions of pity and commiseration for their sad condition. We are frequently asked the question, ' What led to the establishment of The Training System, and, in conjunction with it, the Normal Training Seminary, for the preparing of schoolmasters and mistresses to conduct the system?' This is not easily answered ; but we may state a few facts which suggested the idea. Most certainly it was not the result of mere reflection in the study or in the parlour, but arose from the daily and yearly observation of ignorance and crime presented to my mind, from the circumstances in which I was providentially placed. It is always painful to speak of one's self ; but one or two statements may save many uncomfortable repetitions. For five years previous to 1819, 1 was one of a number who distributed to poor old men certain funds raised by subscrip- tion, and which, it was expected, should be paid to the SECT. I.] THE TRAINING SYSTEM. 29 individuals monthly at their own dwellings. The small pit- tance given was only granted after the most minute investi- gation of the case of each applicant for relief. My district was one of the lowest and most degraded in the city. During these investigations and private visits, an amount of deceit, ignorance, and wickedness, was gradually disclosed, which convinced me that the favourite idea of reforming the old was a hopeless one. A few solitary cases there were, indeed, of persons who had been early imbued with Christian principles, and who had profited thereby ; but, with these exceptions, the mass was as impenetrable as the nether millstone. No motive awakened their consideration, save the silver pence, which, when presented, lighted up their eye and warmed their heart. On every other subject save Mammon, they were in a profound sleep. Habits, ' our second nature,' held them as with an iron grasp. I turned my attention, therefore, more particularly to the young ; and as my residence was, for some years previous to 1816, on the south side of the river, the most direct way to which lay through the Saltmarket, the very ' St Giles of Glasgow,' my eyes and ears were shocke,d several times a-day by the profanity, indecency, filth, and vice, which were exhibited by hordes of young and old, and even by infants who were growing up pests to society, and ruined in themselves, for whose souls or bodies no one seemed to care, and whose wretchedness was enough to disgrace a professedly Christian community. Could nothing be done to stem this torrent of vice and ungodliness? was the daily recurring and home- pressed question in my mind. I knew of nothing but a Sabbath school ; for I then participated in the almost uni- versal delusion, that religious and moral instniction would accomplish all, and had not then learned that religious and moral instruction and religious and moral training are two distinct things. Week-day schools had evidently done nothing, and preaching from the pulpit had seldom or never reached that class of the community. These thousands of 30 ORIGIN OP [sect. I. pitiable creatures were seldom, if ever, visited by ministers, elders, missionaries, or any godly person whatever. The riotous drunkard, or the police officer, chiefly disturbed this seat of ' the wicked one.' My object was to seize a dozen or so of these wild human beings on the streets, and try what, by the blessing of God, might be done with them. But how to accomplish this, and to teach them when brought into a school-room on a Sabbath evening, I was alike ignorant. Moreover, I understood from others that none but children of the well-disposed could be retained longer than a few afternoons, whilst the love of novelty held its sway. The want of clothing formed another barrier.* I therefore determined that none but neighbours should be admitted — thereby removing the aversion to appear ill- dressed among strangers — the proximity of their residences also rendering it easy for me to call upon the absentee children during the week, and to send for them on Sabbath evenings ; also, that the school-room, although only a kitchen, should be within or close to the district. This principle was afterwards widely extended in this and other districts of the city, and is termed the Local System.f The locality was confined to two short and narrow back lanes, and no child was admitted who did not reside within the district, so I gave up the idea of the random mode of catching children on the streets. Ignorant as I was how to teach, yet, having a fancy for the art, I hired a room in the Saltmarket; and having called upon seventy contiguous families, residing in the two narrow closses or lanes alluded to, I succeeded in bringing out * See Section VIII.— Clothing Societies. t Dr Chalmers about that period, viz., in 1816, had commenced estab- lishing Sabbath schools, which were confined to his own parish, con- taining 10,000 sonls, so that any child throughout the parish might attend any one of the parochial Sabbath schools. This method of inviting scholars from such an extended district, although parochial, did not secure the attendance of the most sunken or neglected children. Such children can only be brought out and retained by the district, or strictl!/ local plan alluded to. On seeing its superiority, it was afterwards adopted by the Eev. Doctor, and termed the Local System. SECT. I,] THE TKAINING SYSTEM. 31 twenty-eight boys and girls, of ages varying from eight to fourteen years, who were as unruly a set of children as could well be imagined. Their tricks and Sabbath 'pranks,' if narrated, might fill a volume. They were not exactly thieves or pickpockets (except occasionally,) but the average run of labourers' children, rude however, and uncultivated in the extreme, quite what would now be termed a Ragged School, with an untrained master. They had aU been at some school, in town or country, parochial or private, and could read more or less correctly (for I then imagined it would be of no use attempting to communicate religious knowledge to a child who could not read, which oral gallery training lessons have since enabled me to do.) Nearly every one brought a Bible with him ; but being aware that the fact of having acquired the art of reading the Bible by no means infers that its con- tents are known or understood, I determined on some test of their Bible knowledge. Accordingly, on the first evening of their entrance, I took each of the children aside separately, and, by questioning them as plainly as I could, found that only five end of the twenty-eight could tell the name of the first man, or that there ever had been a first man, or a garden of Eden, or the origin of sin, or the first transgression — quite as ignorant of these things as the merest savage. Of course, if Bible reading in school be confined to some portions of its history, without exercising the mind, or drawing any lessons or deductions from the history, what can be expected? The words, in the language of Scripture, become merely as 'sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.' So much for the amount of real or useful knowledge then communicated in Week-day Bible Schools in Glasgow, or in the country whence some of these families had come. They had all been taught to read and repeat words, but certainly not to understand them. These were all religiously-instructed children ! or at least had been taught in what are termed Scriptural schools — and this in the centre of the commercial metropolis of Scot- land, said to he the most highly educated nation on the face of 32 ORIGIN OF [sect. I. the globe.* Surely we are living on former fame, and satis- fying ourselves too much with the phantoms of our own imagination. We are reaping as we have sown. We sow little, and therefore we reap little. Words may have been sown, but certainly not ideas. Under puch systems of com- munication, the Roman Catholics themselves might feel perfectly safe in putting the Protestant Bible into the hands of all their children. From the year 1816 to 1821, T imagined that were the whole juvenile population brought out into such local Sab- bath schools, eventually the mass of the community might be morally elevated ; I therefore pushed forward the establish- ment of a number of these schools in different parts of the city and suburbs ; but I gradually discovered that one day's teaching in school, for good, was not equal in effect to six day's evil training on the streets. Successful as this enterprise was (for the schools remain to the present day, under various parochial and private societies, embracing nearly 20,000 scholars), I found I had been ignorant of the important fact, that teaching is not training, and that the sympathy and example of companionship are more influential than the example and precepts of any master. Something more and very different, therefore, appeared wanting — practical good habits must be formed as well as principles inculcated — the children must be taught and super- intended during the week, as well as during two hours of ». Sabbath afternoon or morning ; in fact, the natural principles of sympathy, and the insinuating current of evil, must be met by an opposing current of good. It was evident that for children of from three to fifteen years of age, twelve years of the most important, because the most impressible, period of life, no moral machinery existed for their 'godly upbringing.' * From what I and many others have witnessed in different localities of this and other towns, in Scotland and in England, I am presenting no overcharged picture of the miserable educational and moral machinery which is applied to our population generally. SECr. I.j THE TRAINING SYSTEM. 33 My eyes were now directed everywhere, in search of any- thing and everything that might assist my purpose. In the meantime, the system of oral Bible training was gradually developed and worked out in my private Sabbath school, which, by the intellectual character of its picturing out in words, sim- ultaneous answers, questions and ellipses, gallery principle, etc., was afterwards made the intellectual department of the first model week-day schools of the Normal Seminary— this method enabling the master to communicate more knowledge in one hour, and more perfectly, than on the ordinary methods is done in two or three hours. This principle of intellectual training, so accordant with nature, unexpectedly discovered how the time could be saved in conducting the ordinary elementary branches of a day school,*whereby the children might have time for amusements in a play-ground, and the master sufficient leisure for morally superintending them while there, and afterwards for review- ing their conduct on returning to the school gallery ; in fact, for adding and embodying moral training as a new principle in the public school. 'Prevention is better than cure,' was our motto;,, and to begin well, we cannot begin too early. My first object, therefore, was to begin with children under six years of age, before their intellectual and moral habits were fully formed, and consequently, when fewer obstacles were presented to the establishment of good ones. This experiment then, and ever since, has proved most triumphantly successful, and exhibits the important practical principle, that valuable as training is at any age, still you increase in power as you descend in age ; for if training at twelve or fourteen years of age be calculated as one — at nine it may be as two — at six as four — at three or four as dght. Thus children at three years of age are eight times more easily, or rather more efficiently trained, than at twelve years of age. We were aware that parents could not be easily prevailed upon to pay for religious moral training, even were it practir c 34 OEiom OF [sect. i. cable to establish it by itself, apart from the ordinary branches of education, or even to send their children, of seven, nine, or twelve years of age, to an institutfon for that purpose, which being unknown they did not value. In regard to young children under six years of age, there were comparatively few obstacles presented, because this period of youth was entirely untouched by any existing insti- tution for their moral or intellectual culture. The greater difficulty presented afterwards was, how to ingraft moral and intellectual training on juvenile schools, so that, without any change of system, children might be carried forward in all the stages of their subsequent education, without infring- ing on the amount and variety of the elementary branches. Although we do not approve of sending children early to a school for mere teaching or instruction, yet, for reasons which we shall subsequently show, however well-trained the children may be at home, we would in all cases advocate the principle, that they cannot be sent too early to school for moral training, and that at each stage of their education, both in the juvenile and senior departments, they should be carried forward on the same training system; — on the broad principle, that while family training fits more particularly for domestic, that of the school prepares for public and social life. If moral school training be an advantage to children who are properly attended to at home, what must be the necessity in regard to the thousands of poor neglected ones who crowd our city-lanes and alleys, or live in the country, Without any parent qualified to train them ! Their parents cannot and do not, either by example, or by precept, or superintendence, , 'train them up in the way they should go;' but on the con- trary, often inculcate principles and show an example perfectly the reverse of all that is godly or sober, or virtuous; thus leaving their offspring a prey to their own propensities, and the evil example and training of children as bad as themselves, or perhaps worse. Need we wonder then at the prevalence of crime, and rudeness, and insubordination, and SECT, l] the TBAnnNG STSTEM. 35 every sort of ungodliness? Need we wonder that tl)ese habits should stand proof against every subsequent appliance that may be brought to bear upon such a mass of uncultivated human beings ? The leading features of the Training System, both moral and intellectual, may then be stated to have originated in 1816, when I commenced the Sabbath school alluded to. At that period I had to train myself to some system of discipline, and some method of communication, being wholly ignorant of the proper or natural principles of governing the minds and physical habits of children, and still more of resisting or subduing the volcano of moral depravity which was ever active around me. For these purposes I laid down certain rules for my guid- ance, which eventually proved successful, the most important of which were, — First, that I would neret s^ike, whatever degree of provocation might be given ; and. Secondly, that I should never eixpel, however unruly the children might prove. The various methods to which, upon these principles, I was compelled to resort, in order ,to obtain attention, and to maintain ffiscipline, obedience, and good order, and, at the same time, control and subdne my rfsing feelings of indigna- tion at their wayward conduct, led to the working out of the great principle of moral TKArNiNG.* These self-restraints compelled me of course to use moral and intellectual, instead of physical means of discipline. Physical Exercises. — The impossibility of being able to command that fixed attention so' necessary in school, when the pupils are seated at desks, or placed in semicircles or squares, in consequence of which they look each other in the face, led me to place my pupils (boys and girls) in parallel hues. This arrangement gave the first idea of a gallery — to this was added certain bodily movements, or physical exercises, • The necessity of moral superintendence by the master on week- days, at play, as a part of any system of moral training, naturally led afterwards to the adoption of a pl&y-qboukd. S6 ORIGIN OF [sect. I. that were not considered out of accordance with the sanctity of the Sabbath, but which greatly tended to arrest the atten- tion and maintain order. Physical exercises, during every lesson, were thus rendered a means to an end — the end being their intellectual and moral improvement. Elocution and the simultaneous principle in galleey TRAINING lessons. — The monotonous, slurring, blundering style of reading which one and all exhibited, led me to adopt the method of reading each word separately and very slowly, and the propriety of saving time by causing the children to read and repeat simultaneomly, as well as individually, and answer questions all together, or to repeat only one line at a time, and sometimes even each child after another, only one word in succession, eventually led to the principle of the simultaneous system in gallery training lessons. Simultaneous distinct reading, and each child repeating only one word rapidly in succession, enabled a class of thirty or forty to read pretty nearly in one tone of voice, after a few weeks' exercise, destroyed monotony, and formed a basis for impressive and true Elocution. Questions and ellipses mixed. — At that period, question- ing, except by mere rote, was rarely practised in schools, and ellipses were scarcely ever used. These two principles, however, we united during the whole process of every lesson ; and 'instead of the ellipses being put as a mere guess,* by a natural process it was changed into a simple method of put- ting questions. Questions and ellipses conjoined, there- fore, in schools conducted on the Training System, are in constant use with children of all ages, and in all branches, and, of course, are increased in frequency as you descend in age. Memory of ideas before memory of words. — The usual method in Sabbath schools was, and still is, first to commit a passage to memory during the week, and to repeat it on the Sunday following ; but I gradually found, that by thoroughly analyzing the substance of the passage (which requires a * See Section IV. SECT. I.j THE TRAINING SYSTEM. 37 frequent repetition of its terms,) in other words, by exercising the powers of the understanding first, or lodging the idea in the mind before the mere words or sounds, not only were the terms more easily committed to memory afterwards, but before leaving the school-room, the four, five, or six verses or sen- tences, which in general were repeated very imperfectly after the lapse of a week's previous learning at home, I found were repeated pretty perfectly by every child the same evening „ before leaving the class. To confirm these in the memory of words, and to save time, they were generally required to repeat one word at a time each, in succession, as the first exercise of the next meeting of the class. This led to the principle of exercising the memory of judgment in every lesson before the memory of sounds. Then, it was made a fundamental rule, that the subject-matter of the lesson be analyzed and familiarly illustrated — the children frequently questioning each other, the trainer directing them ; and the lesson, reason, or deduction was readily expressed by the pupils. The facts not previously known by the children were of course told, but the scholars themselves were prepared to give the reason or lesson. This secured beyond a doubt that the information was possessed by the pupils, and is the most distinguishing feature of the intellectuai, depaetment of ' THE TRAINING SYSTEM.' A psalm or hymn, therefore, was never sung by the children until it was shortly analyzed and understood, on the same principle that the passage was never committed to memory until ' pictured out,' or rendered visible to the mind's eye of the children. They thus could sing with the understanding. Analogy and familiar illustrations. — The use of these, in picturing out a Bible lesson, is in accordance with the example of our Saviour. When asked by the Pharisees, ' Is it lawful to give tribute to Csesar?' he said, '.Show me a penny,' etc. He did not tell, but trained. Again, when asked, ' Who is my neighbour ?' he pictured it out by the story of the good Samaritan. When John the Baptist sent his disciples 38 ORIGIN OP [sect. I. to Jesus, and inquired, ' Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another f he neither answered yes nor no, but said, ' Go and tell John those things which ye do hear and see ; the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk,' etc., leaving them to form the conclusion from the simple picture he had drawn. All experience, moreover, pi'oves that the speaker who most graphically ^zafMres out is not merely the most popular, but the best understood. Bible Training. — The mode of conducting Bible lessons in this Sabbath school, viz., picturing out in words, afterwards became the principle of conducting the secular as well as Bible lessons in the week-day Model and Normal School, iu 1826-27, and its natural and perfect adaptability to all the advanced branches of education, — scientific, as well as scriptural, — rendered it applicable to children of all ages, and it continues so to the present day. Thus the germs of the leading features and peculiarities of the system were working out for seven years at least, before I attempted, or at least effected, their introduction into a Model and Normal School on week-days. This was done so that the principles might be seen by visitors, and extended throughout the land by those who might be trained in the institution. Of course we had our, eyes and ears open to every suggestion that might be offered by practical men ; taking care, however, that nothing was adopted without being recast and moulded on the training principle, the power and effects of which, in my private school, had perfectly astonished me. In order to ' begin at the beginning,' these principles, as we have already stated, were first applied to children under six years of age, then to children of from six to ten years, and again to those above ten. Persons, male and female, were trained to practise the principles of moral training, and the mode of intellectual communications on all subjects that were considered necessary in popular schools, with the addition of a Moral Industrial School for girls above ten years of age, which is also a practising' school for female students, and SECT. I.J THE TRAINING STSTEM. 39 which, with other Model Schools, viz., Initiatory, Juvenile, and Senior, — student's hall and class-rooms, in one Insti- tution, is termed a Normal Seminary. These principles being embodied in the public school, have unquestionably proved successful — greatly, indeed, beyond our expectations — and convincB me, and hundreds besides, that the Training System as a principle, and the Moral Training School as a complete embodimemt of the principle, is the de- sideratum — the additional requisite moral machine for the elevation of society, and especially that which, by God's bless- ing, may form an antidote to the exposed and demoralizing condition of the youth of large towns, as well as of rural parishes. The peculiarities or distinguishing features of the Train- ing System may be stated in one sentence, as — Picturing out in Words,* direct Moral Training,, with suitable premises, and the various Practical Methods by which these objects are accomplished, under well-instructed and well-trained Masters or • The practical and distinctive elements of this process may be gathered from Sections III. and IV. SECTION I. CHAPTER IV. EXPLANATION OF THE TRAINING SYSTEM — MORAL TRAINING SCHOOL — AND NORMAL SEMINARY, OR COLLEGE. Before entering more fully into proofs of the necessity of moral school training, as an addition to the public school, or the necessity of a system of intellectual communication more simple and natural than is usually pursued, with examples of the practical operation of the principles we have proposed, for general adoption, I may shortly explain the three distinctive points of our title-page, viz.: — The Training System; the Moral Training School ; and the Normal Seminary. The Training System. This system, which of late years has been somtimes termed ' The Glasgow system,'* is chiefly new, and partly an adap- tation to some of the points in education that were practised previous to 1820, when first I seriously endeavoured to pro- vide and systematize a particular course in our public schools, for the moral and intellectual cultivation of the youth of large towns. The novelties may be stated as — First, the addition of direct Moral training, in conjunction with the branches usually taught, including the requisite platform and apparatus, with * The mere name is unimportant, except in so far as it may convey an idea of the object pursued. We find, however, that to many this name gives the impression that the system in question is universally pursued in Glasgow, whereas throughout the city there exists to this day every possible variety, from the oldest rote system to the most intellectual. SECT. I.] OUTLINES OP ITS PRINCIPLES. 41 the method of using them ; — Second, A mode of intellectual communication, termed, Picturing out in words, conducted by a combination of questions and ellipses, analogy and familiar illustrations, — the use of simple terms by the trainer, within the range of the pupil's acquirements, — and answers, chiefly simultaneous, but occasionally individual,'by which the pupils are naturally trained to observe, perceive, reflect, and judge, and thus to draw the lesson for themselves, and to express it to the trainer in such terms as they fully understand — being made to perceive as vividly by the mental eye as they would real objects by the bodily eye. I may state, that while this machinery for training the ' child,' or whole man, may at first sight appear complicated, and requires the master to be accomplished in the art of conducting it, yet each part or division of it is extremely simple in itself, and, as a whole, every practical student finds it to be the best fitted for accomplishing the great end in view. The Training System is by no means stereotyped in its details, ■ excepting in so far as concerns its two distinguishing features, viz.. Intellectually picturing out in words, and direct (practical) Moral training. The Training System, however, is not prac- tised where moral superintendence of the children by the masters while at play, and a subsequent review of their con- duct on their return to the school gallery, form no parts of the plan pursued, and T^here, in the intellectual department, each lesson is not so conducted and pictured out as to enable the pupils to give to the master the inference or deduction intended to be drawn, in their own language. The more obvious parts of the machinery and mode of operation have been more or less copied in schools and seminaries throughout the kingdom, without the two peculiarities mentioned having been actually adopted; the effects, therefore, are not pro- duced. To a casual observer, they present something of the appearance of the system ; but, thus separated and disjoined, they are not the thing itself, the more especially if conducted by an untrained master or mistress. 42 THE TEAINING SYSTEM. [SEOT. I. ' The alternate exercises of b(Jdy and mind, which the entire system affords during lessons and at play, render school quite a pleasure ; and what is pleasing is the more likely to be eagerly engaged in and pursued. This is proved by the intense delight the children manifest in every school so con- ducted — truant-playing or ennui being quite out of the ques- tion.* We are sensible that no explanations or examples of ours can render the system visible to the mind of the inquirer, except very partially — just as the landscape or portrait- painter can only explain and exhibit very partially the work- ing of his art. He paints in colours — the trainer pictures out in words. Either art, however, can only be thoroughly known when practised. I have therefore little hope of con- vincing any prejudiced person of its beauty and efficiency, by any treatise I can present. Painters diifer iu power and efficiency in their art — so do trainers and public speakers ; but the requisite qualifications for a trainer are perhaps less rare than for a painter or pnbhc speaker. Every lesson whether elementary, scientific, or scriptural, is conducted on the traiurug principle, viz., ideas before technical terms — every term being pictured out before being used, and the whole premises on which the lesson rests being so vividly presented to the mind's eye of the children, as we have already said, that they are prepared to draw the lesson or deduction — the master acting the part of trainer, and only stating facts which the pupils do not already know; and thus drawing' their minds, step by step, to the natural conclusion. Without physical exercises in-doors, and 'plenty of fun" out of doors, for children of every age, under the eye of the master, the system must fail; for if we do not permit the superabundant spirit to be expended in what is right, they will expend it themselves in what is wrong— superabundance there generally is, unless crushed by improper confinement and tedious unmeaning lessons. Children cannot be idle, and • See Chap. Progress of the System. Section VIII. SECT. l.J OUTUNES OF ITS PRmcrPLES. 43 they caoinot always be employed in intellectual exercises, nor too long in one particular mental exercise without injury. Variety is necessai^, and variety does not dissipate or fatigue. The * steam,' in feet, must be let off, and nowhere so well or so fully as in a play -ground, as well as by physical exercises in the gallery. The play-ground should he large enough to enable all the pupils to have free exercise for their bodily powers, and the development of their natural dispositions and habits. In large towns, where there are no such facilities for innocent amusements as in the country, this system makes the pro- vision we have mentioned — thus carrying out the training of the covered into the uncovered school-room. But we must not be supposed to imply that the same regular superinten- dence and participation in the pursuits of the children, on the part of the master-trainer, are not equally necessary in the country as in towns. On the contrary, we maintain that every system of education or of training is incomplete, where provision is not made for this no less important part of physical and moral training, than the regular lessons of the covered school-room. We therefore always recommend, and, when I have the power, insist upon the purchase of a play- ground in connection with every country as well as town school. The religious department, termed Bible Training, occu- pies the first hour of the day, including the prayer, and analysis of the hymn or psalm, before being sung— the practice of .the Bible precepts and principles, termed moral training, being diffused throughout the whole day. The teaching to read or write, or cast accounts, does not differ materially from the ordinary improved plans, except that the habit of the trainer induces him naturally to adopt more of the simultaneous than the individual method. English grammar is of course taught on the reverse principle to that of merely committing the rules to memory. Elocution is taught on a natural and novel method. In regard to cor- 44 THE TRAINING SYSTEM. [sECT. I. poral punishments, they, as well as prizes, are dispensed with on this system* — the aim being to punish through other than mere bodily feeUng, and to stimulate from higher motives than selfishness or fear. The daily secular gallery training lessons are conducted orally, and generally without a book — such as on physical science, natural history, the arts and manufactures, with the qualities, relations, and adaptations of natural substances, which never fail to cultivate the under- standing and the judgment of the pupils. These, and the Bible training lessons, while they greatly add to the in- tellectual culture of the pupils, exercise at the same tinlie the higher powers of conscientiousness, benevolence, and venera- tion ; and, by elevating the motives of action above sordid- ness and mere selfishness, tend also, by the blessing of God, to imbue the pupil with a just self-respect, and to engender humility, which lies at the base of aU improvement and of all the other Christian graces. Singing was introduced into the Juvenile Model Training School from the year 1829, long before it was introduced into popular schools ; since which period, however, it has been widely spread throughout the empire, even for ' the million.' The singing of sacred and moral songs, and marching airs, forms an important part of school discipline — alternately cheering, animating, and tranquillizing the feelings of the children, as they require to be regulated, also preparing them better for joining in pubUc and family worship. It had been introduced into the Model Initiatory School, for children under six years of age, from its estabKshment in 1826, and ever since, in regard to children of all ages, has had an effect at home and at play of displacing many songs of a very question- able character. It cannot be too frequently repeated, that all cultivation ought to begin early. Early training is the only rational and hopeful experiment. It is so in the vegetable and animal — it is so in the moral world. If corn is expected to grow and ripen, • See Chapter Punishments—Prizes, etc. SECT. I,] OUTLINES OF ITS PRINCIPLES. 45 we must not sow in summer nor in autumn, but in spring. The farmer ploughs, and weeds, and sows, and harrows, and doubts not but, by God's blessing, he shall have an abundant harvest. Spiritual husbandry bears a closer analogy to natural husbandry than is generally imagined^ During the spring-time of life, the weeds of sin and folly may be prevented from growing into such rank luxuriance as entirely to pre- occupy the ground. Early, rather than late training, secures success in the prosecution of everything in life. It is so in the arts and sciences, and in the business and occupations of life ; and it is no less true in the culture of the mind, the moral affections, and physical habits. Early training, ex- cept in particular cases, alone gives cause for hope ; and the earlier the better. Let everything be simple and elementary, in the first instance. Lay the foundations broad and deep, and there will be no danger of erecting a too massive super- structure. Give the child early and clear perceptions of elementary subjects, and correct habits of thought and action, and through life he will be able to teach and train himself. Set before him the broad outlines of every subject, and he will not fail, according to his opportunity of reading and observa- tion, to fill in the outlines for himself. Quality, therefore, is more the object of the Training System than quantity. The first mental power exercised by a child is observation — acquiring a knowledge of external objects. Facts, deduced from the presentation of objects, therefore, ought to form the first step in the initiatory education of the child. A clear understanding, however, of the uses and adaptation of every object presented, ought to accompany the presentation; and although this process must necessarily occupy time, it lays a firm foundation in the mind, and secures that every future erection is placed on a firm basis. Seeing, also, the relations and bearings of every subject, children proceed, logically, to form their own conclusions or natural inferences. Cultivation of, mind, therefore, is the natural consequence, even at an early age — the memory of the judgment and of the observa- tion being jointly exercised. 46 THE TRAINING STSTEM. [sECT. I. Gallery training lessons, conducted orally without Book, and which were first introduced into popular schools under this system, have this decided superiority over the mere analysis of a lesson read from a spelling or school collection hook, that in bringing out the points of the subject under analysis, both master and scholars tate the sentiments or statements, not merely of the text-book or extract they are reading, which are often extremely short and imperfectly delineated, but of the whole range of authorises which bear upon the particular point or subject of the lesson to which the master may have had access, in addition to their own obser- vation and experience, — thus mightily extending the means of information to all the pupils. Were we required to give a laconic reply to the question, What is the Training System? we should say — it is that system which cultivates the whole nature of the child, instead of the mere head — th^ ejections and habits, as well as the intellect. In- tellectually — it renders visible to the mind's eye of the child the meaning of every word, and of the whole subject of the lesson, as in a picture ; and it only uses such simple language as enables the pupils, whether of 3, 6, 10, or 15 years of age, to draw the lesson or inference, and express it in their own terms. It gives the idea in the most simple manner before clothing it in technical terms, and never uses a word until it is pictured out, and, of course, understood. It, in fact, exercises the memory of the understanding before the memory of words, thus inverting the usual method of teaching. It is common for children to have large tasks to prepare at home. The picturing out principle in the gallery, as we have already hinted at, prevents the necessity of doing so to a great extent, and lightens this burden to the young; and while it adds to the labour (and pleasure) of the trainer in school, it greatly adds to the intellectuality of the pupils. In most cases, on the old and other systems, the schoolmaster simply hears the lessons which the children commit to memory at home : and parents deceive themselves by determining the amount of educa- SECT. I.] OUTLINES OF ITS PRINCIPLES. 47 tion their children are receiving, hy the numher afhoohs and the length of the lessons which they have to pore over during a whole evening. One important point which may be noticed is this, — That the principle of picturing out in words by gaUery training lessons, conducted orally, not only enables the trainer to com- municate instruction to all, whether they can or cannot read, but it enables the master to communicate, in simple language, more information to the pupils in three hours' instruction, than he could do on the ordinary methods in six ; part of the time thus saved being spent at intervals in the play-ground along with the pupils, and in revievring any particular case of good or bad conduct on their return to the gaflery of the covered school, and partly in conducting additional branches of education. One important feature in the system is the use we make of the gallery in every department of our schools, and at every age, for the exercise of the mutual, mental sympathy, which is so mighty an agent constantly at work for good or for evil, — exhibiting its corrupting or beneficial influence in the world at large, just according as it is exercised. Nor is this all : it provides a better platform for the practice of simultaneous answers and other exercises, which we consider so essential a part of the system. The gaUery to which we allude does not, of course, exclude the use of desks and forms, (arranged in a particular manner,) which we regularly employ, as in other schools, fluring certain portions of the day. Training Physically. Although we notice this depart- ment last, yet it is first in order, and even in importance. We cannot secure the fixed attention of the minds of a gallery of children without physical training. Physical exercises are alike necessary for health of body and of mind. Even for the sake of the former, they ought to be introduced into every school ; and fresh air being necessary to health, every school onght to be furnished with a play-ground. Physical exercises and singing are used more as a means to an end than for their 48 THE TRAINING SYSTEM. [sECT 1. own sake — the end being to arrest and secure the attention of the children, and prepare them for receiving the intellectual and moral lessons to which they are called— just as military drilling prepares the soldier for instant obedience and prompt action at aU times, and in the midst of the most trying circum- stances. Those exercises, howerer, are no less important as an end, although secondary in purpose ; for the children learn to sing as an accomplishment, and to sit, stand, walk, etc., in order, and in healthful comfort and regularity. The highest point, however, viz., moral training, we have principally in view. Without a play-ground, therefore, there cannot be an approach to the development of the real character and dispo- sitions of the child (the covered school-room does not afford this); also, without superintendence by the master, there cannot be moral training, except, indeed, in a very trifling, degree ; and time cannot be afforded for that moral super- intendence without a new and particular arrangement of the method of conducting the indoor lessons : and, also, without the gallery principle, there cannot be the patient, fuU, and dispassionate review of their play-ground conduct by the master-trainer. Physical exercises in the covered school gallery are also necessary, as we have already said, to arrest and sustain iNTELLECTUAi, attention, as well as moral obedience ; and, therefore, the most particular care should be paid to this department at all times, but more particularly during the first few weeks ofcommemdng a training school. To no department, however, have young masters such an innate aversion as physical training. To what cause can we attribute this feeling but to intellectual pride f What — they say or_^;, ' Am I to condescend to play with my scholars — to make myself childish ? — (not childish, indeed, but child-like it may be.) The exercise of this pride, however, uniformly ' goes before a fall' or a failure in training ' the child.' A single branch of education — such as reading, elocution, geography, grammar, science, or Latin— may be conducted on SECT. 1.] OUTLINES OP ITS PRINCIPLES. ' 49 what is termed ' The Training System,' bearing in mind the one particular principle, viz., ideas before technical terms, and employing suitable arrangement? in regard to the method pursued. The system applied to ' the child,' however, is a vastly more extended process of the same principle, and refers to the whole nature of man. The complete system, in fact, is necessary to train the ' child.' When a catechism, or book in the form of a catechism, is used, whether on secular or sacred subjects, the mere com- mittal of the verbiage to memory is at best a superficial and inefficient mode of teaching. To render such really useful, each question and answer ought to be, in the first instance, analyzed, pictured out in words, and rendered visible to the mind's eye by familiar illustrations; and the ideas being possessed by the pupils, they may then be fixed in the mind by committing the words to memory. This, which is the training process, secures a permanent retention. The oppo- site course of procedure has been, and still is, all but uni- versal. Hence the fugitive tendency of what is termed the memory, viz., the verbal memory, without the sympathetic influence of the memory of ,the understanding. Should the pupils fail in giving the lesson to the master, then the fault is not the children's, but his own, not having properly con- ducted or pictured out the premises. He must have used technical terms above their comprehension, or otherwise led them blindfold on the way. The teem Tkaining. Before closing this short analysis, which might be extended to a volume, we may state our authority for terming the system Training. In Scripture the command is given, ' Train up a child in the way he should go ;' and the promise attached to the precept is, ' and when he is old he will not depart from it.' Whatever may have been done in families, trairmg the '■child' has not been the practise hitherto in popular schools. Teaching or instruction has been given, not training, or, at the best, the head has been trained, not ' the child ' — the 50 THE TKAINING SYSTEM. [sECT. T. whole man. We have, therefore, no right to expect the ful- filment of the promise which is attached to the precept. Too frequently children are trained elsewhere than in school, in the way they should not go, and when old they do not depart from it. We understand, then, the precept to be — 'train,' not simply teach or teU ; and the whole nature of the child, not merely his intellect or memory; up, from the beginning of life to manhood, ' in the way he should go.' If a child is to be trained in the way he should go, the trainer must be with him to superintend, guide, and direct him. The child's affec- tions, and physical and moral habits, must be properly exer- cised and trained. (Were he naturally inclined to think, and feel, and act properly, he should then require no training.) It will be acknowledged, that 'the way he should go' should be in accordance with God's revealed will. We know of no other standard of obedience, whether of thought, feeling, or outward action, in the intercourse of play, of business, or of religious exercises. This, then, is our warrant for the term The Training System — being, so far as we know, the first school system under which the principle was practically esta- blished, of training ore one and the same natural principle, from the earliest stage up to manhood. Locke and Butler have already set forth in tneir works, that lecturing or telling will not make a proficient in any art. Dr Samuel Johnson also says, ' You cannot, by all the lecturing in the world, enable a man to make a shoe.' The divinely- inspired Solomon, ages before, gave the command, ' Train up a child,' etc. ; but who, it may be asked, presented the prac- tical training school and system ? Who showed the manner how ? This was wanting. We know not how often we have listened to a sermon from the text, ' Train up a child in the way he should go ;' but in less than ten minutes we uniformly heard the term changed to, instruct him in the right way — show the child what he ought to believe, and what he ought to do — show him a good example. But to see that he does, SECT. I.] OUTLINES OF ITS PRINCIPLES. 51 and to place him in such circumstances and under such superintendence as to induce and enable him to do, were neither recommended nor provided for. Anything short of this principle is not training the ' child.' Any one of the points or parts of the process may be useful in particular circumstances ; but being disjointed pieces of machinery, they prove inef6cient, and cannot reasonably claim the fulfilment of the promise, which to many minds appears not quite true. The command, ' train,' is of course addressed to parents; and what they cannot accomplish personally, they are bound to do by proxy ; and what better or more suitable proxy than the schoolpaaster, to whom is generally handed over the care of their children for several hours a-day ? When I first published the principles of a system of educa- tion, termed training, I met with many objections from high and influential quarters. What ! it was said, do you propose to train our children as you would dogs and horses, etc., which have no understanding? At that period the terms publicly used were, instruction, education, teaching, moral edu- cation, religious insti-uction, intellectual teaching. Now, how- ever, the terms used (whatever the systems may be) have as uniformly been changed, in every quarter, to training, and even by some who formerly denounced the use of the term. In nearly every one of the model training schools of the most prominent normal or training institutions which of late years have sprung up throughout the kingdom, professedly for preparing schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, the directors have adopted one, two, or more of the points of the mode of communication or of the machinery alluded to ; but, with the ' exception of two or three institutions, in none are the actual peculiarities of the Training System pursued, viz., direct moral training,, and picturing out in words. They have generally been termed Training Schools — a name whichj ten or twelve years before, we had given to every private or parish school established on the comphte principle, having a trained master, and suitable school premises, and apparatus for cultivat- 52 THE TRAINING SYSTEM. [sECT. I. iog the entire ' child.' A confusion of ideas, therefore, has existed, since the opening of these training or normal col- leges, on the mention of the term Training School* — several hundred schools having previously been established at home and in the colonies by our trained students, each bearing that name, and only training children as they professed to do. This circumstance, therefore, has compelled us some- times of late to alter the title of these parochial and private schools, conducted on the system, to Moral training schools — morals based upon Bible training being the primary object, aim, and end of the system in question. At the early period of our labours, the old rote system was 80 universally practised, that a very slight allusion to our pecu- liar method, and to the school arrangements, was alone neces- sary to show the distinction between what popular schools were and what we earnestly desired them to be. It is different now, however, when parts of the machinery and prominent features of the mode of operation have gradually found their way into private and public schools throughout the kingdom, without having adopted the entire machine, or the trained workman. Enlightened teachers may have seen the power of the system in schools conducted by some of our 2500 trained students, although directors of some of these schools may not have per- mitted the whole arrangements nor mode of communication to be carried into effect. In the later editions of this manual, I have therefore found it necessary to enter more minutely into the detail of what constitutes the real and distinguishing features of a system which has its more showy and its more substantial points. Some have copied parts of the system, knowing whence they originated, and many without know- ing, both being equally ignorant that disjoined portions of a machine, such as they have selected, could not be expected to produce the results they may have fondly anticipated. Discredit, therefore, is apt to be thrown upon the entire Tramiug System; this is what we complain of, not the • See Section VIII., Diocesan Training Schools. SECT. I.] OUTLINES OP ITS PRINCIPLES. 53 fact that the source from which they sprung is not acknow- ledged. In our distant and more iretired locality, it may iot be sur- prising, then, that I should receive such questions as the fol- lowing, personally and by letter :— In your system do you nee a gallery 1 Do you demand simultaneous answers? Do you use ellipses f Do you ever mix them with questions, as I see done in our neighbourhood? How do you act when the children cannot answer ? Do you tell them at once ? Does the Training System require a play-ground ? Is the master expected to be with the children at play ? Have you Bible training lessons ? Do the books you use contain the sub- stance of your oral training lessons ? Do you give prizes ? What corporal punishments do you use ? Do you give oral gallery lessons on natural science and on common things ? etc. Of course no one could put any such questions who had ever read this manual of the system, or witnessed it in operation at Glasgow, where these and other points were first esta- blished, and presented to public attention, thirty years ago. We may simply add, 1st, that four pamphlets were sent to me at different times, which had been addressed to the Lords' Committee of Council, setting forth the mighty ad- vantages of the Training System, and copying several para- graphs from this ' book, verbatim, without acknowledging whence derived, or that any institution existed at the moment in which the principles contended for are carried into practice. 2d, — Public Lectures on the System. A minister of the gospel, from the country, came to one of the large towns in England, and advertised his intention of deUvering five lectures on a new system of education, as he stated, not knowing that one of our former students had conducted a training school for children in that town for four years pre- viously. Three lectures were delivered, during which our former student was surprised to hear the precise system recommended as new, which he daily practised, and large quotations expressed, verbatim, from this little work, of course 54 OUTLINES OP THE TEAINING SYSTEM. [SECT. I. without acknowledgment ; and still more surprised was he to see one of his own directors occupying the chair. Our friend, the trainer, immediately addressed a note to the lecturer through one of the public journals, offering to bring 120 of his own pupils, to any public place he might choose to name, and there to exhibit in practice the precise system which he so strongly and eloquently recommended. One thousand of _ the elite of Jhe town were admitted by tickets, the Mayor in the chair. The children did admirably, and precisely accord- ing to the system. The reverend gentleman was confounded, and instantly leaving the town, the two remaining lectures were, of course, not delivered. What is a Moral Training School ? The Moral Training School comprehends a carrying out of proper family training in the public school, and is intended as an assistant to parents, but never to supersede their exer- tions at home — the school more particularly fitting for public,' and the family for domestic life. Without both of these influences, mankind must be imperfectly trained for perform- ing the duties of men and of citizens. The moral training school presents a combination of all the apparatus and prin- ciples already referred to in the mode of communication, having the Bible as a text-book, and its daily oral gallery lessons as the standard of morals. A moral training school does not necessarily require a large extent of elementary or scientific knowledge, although every one may embrace the highest degree possible. In addition to the daily Bible tram- ing lessons, however, the trainer or master must see that scriptural principles are as far as possible reduced to practice in the covered school, and, daring the sports of the pupils, in the uncovered school-room or play-ground. In addition to moral training and religious instruction, there must be reading, grammar, writing, and arithmetic, with a cer- tain amount of natural history, geography, and science, in rela- tion to common life; and in rural districts, the theory and prac- SECT. I.J -HTHAT IS A MORAL TBAINING SCHOOL? ,55 tice of agriculture, particularly for boys ; — and for girls in both town and country, stitching, sewing, and darning, as necessary accomplishments for every housewife. These may be con- sidered as the least amount of instruction in a moral training school. The secular lessons are intended the better to fit for the business and occupations of life. The broad outlines so communicated orally during gallery training lessons, are of course much more comprehensive than what can be gathered from any one reading or spelling-book. Some of these secular lessons on common things, as we shall shortly see, even assist the elucidation of oral Bible lessons in those innumerable em^ blems and allusions to natural things through which moral and spiritual truths are conveyed. * To all hearers in the public sanctuary, the simplification and clear perception of the em- blematical points of Scripture in school are very valuable. The oral training lessons, secular and sacred, in addition to their practical use, highly cultivate the understanding; and the infusion of sound Scriptural knowledge, coupled with its daily practice in school during the period of infancy and youth, may be expected, under God's blessing, to elevate all, whatever may be the sphere of life in which they move. In the case of the poor and unprotected, it must tend to raise them above the temptations of those haunts of vice and corruption in which low and untrained minds and affections are so apt to re¥el, and lead them also to select for their private reading more improving books than the trashy infidel and demoralizing publications now so widely circulated. A moral training school may be conducted with boys alone, or With girls alone, but the separation principle will render it so far imperfect — it being an important point in morals that the sexes should be trained to conduct themselves properly towards each other ; and this cannot be accomplished if they are kept entirely separate.f Experience proves that each sex * See Chapters Picturing oitt in Words— BtauE Tbaining, etc. t See Chap. Sepakation op the Sbxes. 56 O0TUNES, OF THE TRAINING SYSTEM. [sECT. I. improves the other, not merely in a moral, but in an intellec- taal point of view. Whatever may be the amount of oral elementary and secular knowledge that is communicated in any school — without Bible training lessons, and the superintendence of the pupils by the master while at play, and a review of their conduct, as exhibited in the play-ground on returning to the school gallery, such does not fopm a moral training school. Those who object to the children of the poor in national and other schools receiving such a high education as is some- times proposed to t^e given (although the long list of subjects recommended is seldom actually imparted to the pupils) may perhaps approve of our previously stated lowest standard. To require one master to teach too many branches, will be found as destructive of moral training as it is to the under- standing and thorough training in the secular or elementary branches. Hence the promotion and continuance of the ' cramming system.' The Training System is intended as an assistance to parents, and as a carrying out of the training of the family in the school, and during the every-day intercourse of children with their companions at play. . Parents, as we have said, do not, and cannot train their children during a large portion of the day. What we propose, therefore, is, that during that period, viz., from nine till four o'clock, the child should be super- intended and trained by an intelligent, and a well-trained and Christian schoolmaster, and be returned to his parents each afternoon, improved, instead of being decidedly injured by the training of the streets. The master of an ordinary school at present does not, and cannot, for want of premises and suit- able arrangements, superintend his scholars at play, and therefore, as we have shown, cannot train them. It is objected, that even were money provided for the pur- chase of sites, and the erection and establishment of schools to be conducted on the Training System, for all the working SECT. 1.] WHAT IS A MORAL TRAINING SCHOOL ? 57 classes in town and country, a sufficient number of well-edu- cated, pious, and well-trained persons could not be found to conduct the schools, and to render them efficient instruments for the intellectual, religious, and moral training of the young. But why should this be the case ? Why not prepare persons for the work of school-teaching and training, just as has been done for the higher office of the ministry ? There is much piety to be found in tlje country. There is also a fair share of cultivated intelligence ; and this can be increased. Time and attention also would gradually produce good trainers, even in the few Normal Schools, Seminaries, and Colleges already in existence, provided all of them pursued the natural or training system with the grown students and children. Moral Training in School and in the Tamilt. The process of moral training in the school or in the family cannot be rendered so visible to a visitor or inspector, during an examination, as can the intellectual process and its results. Were a stranger, on paying a transient visit to a family, the children of which exhibited such prompt obedience as to be directed by the parent by a nod or a look ; and further, did they at table and in their whole conduct act in such a manner as to prove themselves to have been under excellent training — were this visitor to say to the mother, I am quite delighted with the conduct and polite manners of your family ; pray, tell me how you manage ? How do you get your children to be so obedient to yourself, and kind to one another ? The prudent mother would say — Come and see — come and stay in my house, and what I cannot possibly make you understand by telling or explanation, you may fully understand by observ- ing my course of training. Little quarrels occur in my family, as they do in others, but I endeavour to render them as unfrequent as possible. My children sometimes exhibit a disobedient disposition, but I check this by causing them, in a firm but calm tone of voice, instantly to obey. The manner 58 OUTLINES OF THE TRAINING SYSTEM. [sECT. I. how, I really cannot well explain to you. I act according to circumstances, firmly yet kindly. The results you see, but the precise process I cannot possibly tell. Live with me a month or two, and you may see a little. I must be offended — the fault must be committed before I interfere ; and then, should you be present, not as a stranger, but as an inmate, you shall see how I endeavour to proceed. The tempers and dispositions of my children are varied, p,nd the nature of the provocations, or mutual misconceptions, requires the utmost , deUcaey on my part, more, indeed, than in my own strength I am capable of performing ; but I do my best, and God has been pleased to bless my endeavours. The mother-trainer may again repeat, in answer to the visitor's request — CoirfE AND S1£E. This is precisely the answer that a judicious school-trainer would give to a stranger visitor who desires him to explain how he morally trains his scholars — Comb and see, — remain here a month or two, and I shall show you how we proceed. My children do not always steal, or lie, or quarrel, or fight, or deceive, or exhibit the strong propensity of selfishness. These must be developed in likely circumstances, and are met by what we endeavour to render suitable antidotes. You admire the demeanour and alacrity of my children ; but I am as incapable of exhibiting or explaining to you how I train my pupils in a single hour or day, as is the intelligent Chris- tian mother. Her proper mode is our standard, although the sympathy of numbers is a power she does not possess, which undoubtedly I do. And we each in our own sphere endeavour to 'train up' the children 'in the way they should go.'* What is a Normal Seminary or School ? This may be stated as an institution having model and practising schools under masters who themselves have been trained to practise some particular ' norma ' or system, and who are capable of exhibiting and explaining its prln- * For illustration, see Section VIII. SECT. I.] WHAT IS A NOEMAL SEMINAEY ? 59 ciples. Into this institn|;ion, well-educated young men and women may be admitted as students, and by means of the example and precepts of such training, they themselves also being put to the work, may practically acquire a know- ledge of the system in all its departments, and thus carry it out into the schools and families to which, on finish- ing their prescribed course, they may be appointed.* The Training System, including moral training, and a particular mode of intellectual communication, was the 'Norma' or rule of this the first instituted Normal Seminary in Great Britain for the traiining of schoolmasters. Other Normal Seminaries, Colleges, or Training Schools may follow our 'Norma' or rule, or of course any other they may choose. The name Normal, it is evident, does not necessarily inrolve the particular system which is pursued. , Whilst the Normal Seminary at Glasgow, from 1826, had the points referred to in view, in regard to its students who previously possessed the requisite amount of elementary knowledge, we mean the mode of communication and moral training ; yet from the gradual exhaustion of the stock of well-educated young men and women in the country, to meet the increased demand for traiaers from all parts of the United Kingdom and the colonies, it was found necessary, of late years, to give additional direct instruction to the students in branches in which they were found deficient, or of which they were entirely ignorant. In fact, to add a college department to that of the Normal, — the subject-matter of what is to be * It is much to be regretted that in by far the greater number of the Normal Training Schools and Colleges which have been established during the last fifteen years, the attention of the students Is chiefly, sometimes exclusively, occupied in receiving instruction in those ele- mentary branches of education which should have been previously acquired in elementary and grammar schools, rather than in the prac- tical art of teaching and training, which, after all, is the professed object of all Normal Institutions. The Normal is perfectly a distinct institution and object from the College. The one is theoretical, and the other practical. 60 OUTLINES OF THE TRAINING SYSTEM. [SECT. I. taught, as well as the 'Norma,' or rule of teaching and train- ing. This, however, is essentially distinct from the original Normal establishment, and may or may not be attached to it, and is only rendered necessary in consequence of the generally incomplete and imperfect education which is receiyed in elementary and grammar schools throughout the country and in towns. Even without such separate and direct teaching as we allude to, it must be understood, that in practically acquir- ing the mode of communication, not only is a large addition necessarily made to their stock of knowledge, but all their previous acquirements are revised, and more systematically arranged in their own minds. Every one ought of course to be well educated who undertakes' the highly respectable and important office of teacher and trainer, and he should be well grounded in his profession, not merely as to mental knowledge, but in the power of communicating it to others, and in the still more deUcate and important work of moral training. Persons thus accomplished ought to be well paid, better than schoolmasters have hitherto been ; and we are happy to be able to state, that as in commerce an extra demand generally raises the price of the article, so the rapid and in- creasing demand for school-trainers from our Seminary did for many years raise the salaries of schoolmasters generally from 30 to 50 per cent. It is, indeed, surpassing strange, that whilst in every art but one, an apprenticeship is required to be served before engaging as a master, that exception, till of late years, should have been in the most important and the most difficult of all, viz., the arts of teaching and training. Practically, and, in general, theoretically also, the possession of knowledge, and the power of communicating it to others, have been considered synonymous, and this, too, in the face of the well-known fact, that many great and learned men — as teachers, have been very unintelligible to the old, and positively so to the young. To be a great scholar, and a good teacher, we all know are two very different things. SECTION I. CHAPTER V. CONDITION AND WANTS OF THE DIFFERENT GRADES OP SOCIETY — SUNKEN, SINKING, AND UPRISING. Having glanced at the outlines of the Training System, it may be well to take a cursory view of the materials upon which we have to operate, which may be distinguished as the Sunken, Sinking, and Uprising Classes. It is important to determine whether the same course of instruction and traioing be suited to aU ranks. Ought there to be any distinction between that given to the children of the poor, and to those of the wealthy 1 Morally, there ought to be no distinction — as moral bemgs, having the same sinful inclinations and propensities, there cannot be a difference. AU the information that is proposed to be given should be equally intellectual, and well understood or pictured out to all ; but the variety of knowledge ought to be more extensive in regard to the one class than the other, and adapted in some measure to the condition of life in which they are expected to move — aiming, however, to elevate each grade morally and intellectually above the position in which they are at present, and preserving the balance of aU ranks and conditions of society ; yet, at the same time, permitting genius to take its proper place in the scale. It is with the poor and working classes, however, that we have chiefly to do — with those, in fact, who cannot or will not help themselves. Christian charity and selfishness, or self-preservation, alike stimulate to this work of philanthropy. "We may therefore glance at the moral condition of the dif- 62 DIFFERENT GRADES OF SOCIETY. [sECT. I. ferent grades of society; and steadily looking at the extent of the evil, let all who love peace and jjrder, and the happiness of man, for time and eternity, strive to apply the remedy. The condition of the youth of large towns demands the serious attention of the politician and the Christian philan- thropist. If large towns be a comparatively new state of society, the question is, — has there been provided any new or additional moral machinery to suit that condition ? Commercial and manufacturing pursuits naturally congre- gate the population into towns ; and, whatever may have been provided for the improvement of the old, most certainly no adequate provision has been made for the young, whom we nlust call the most hopeful, because the most impressible portion of society. The powerful tendency of their sympathies and susceptibilities to evil has been left without any suitable antidote. It is no wonder, then, that our cities and towns continue to sink in the scale of morals. Large towns and factories, so far from proviag to be nur- series of vice, as at present, might, by the proper direction of the sympathy of numbers, which the very concentration of numbers affords, be rendered powerful means of physical, moral, and intellectual elevation, were children properly in- structed and trained before the age of thirteen years, when they may be engaged in factories, etc. To assist in analyzing the moral statistics of large towns, let us take Glasgow as an example — one with which, from particular circumstances, we have a pretty intimate acquaint- ance. Glasgow contains a population of about 360,000 souls. * For this mass of human beings a variety of means of religious, moral and intellectual instruction is provided, such as churches, day schools, Sabbath schools, etc. ; but all com- bined, fall greatly below its requirements. Not only are ♦ Were a new census taken, the population no doubt would number above 400,000. SECT. I.] SUNKEN, SINKING, AND UPKISING. 63 they deficient in number, but among the whole we see no practical machinery for the moral training of youth between the ages of three and fifteen years, save that of the family ; and any one in the least conversant with society kaows how fearfully that is neglected, and how imperfectly it can be accomplished, in a large town, by parents in any situation of life. For the sake of classification, our acquaintance with Glas- gow would induce us to divide the grades of society into six parts, of 60,000 each, as follows : — These six parts we shall term — First, The Sunken class as one-sixth ; Second, The Sinking class as two-sixths ; Third, The Uprising class as two-sixths; and, Fourth, The WeaItht class as one-sixth. The consideration of this last division may be set aside for the present : they have the means, and ought to have the intelligence, to provide for themselves ; at the same time, whilst they possess the means, they in reality have not made the necessary provision, and, therefore, have not had the opportunity of having their chil- dren morally tJained in the public school, both from the want of suitable school arrangements and accommodation, and the want of trained masters. Any few attempts in this depart- ment only present models, not the provision for this most important and highly influential class of the community. Parents of the wealthy class frequently spurn the idea of its being said that their children are not being properly trained when out of their sight and beyond their superintendence. We fearlessly assert the melancholy fact, that they do require training which they do not now receive. Are nurses and domestic servants — the great proportion of whom have sprung from ala>ost the lowest of the people, and are possessed often of low grovelling ideas and habits — are such the best trainers of young children, when the mother is engaged with house- hold affairs, making markets or friendly calls, or engaged at evening parties ? Can the father on 'Change, in the counting- house, the study, or the factory, train his children when he is 64 DIFFKRENT GHADES OF SOCIETr. [sECT. I. not with them ? Who, we ask, do train them ' in the way they should go?' Every intelligent man can answer the question — every wise man will apply the remedy, if within his power. The safest and most perfect education and training we conceive to be at home, night and morning ; and at school, for intellectual and maral training, during the day, — ^thus uniting domestic, family, and school training in one unbroken chain. The wealthy class may provide what they judge best for their families. It is widely different, however, with other classes, who have not the means, and, too generally, not even the inclination. Deducting the 60,000 of the wealthy class, we have still left 300,000 of the poor and working classes, three-fifths of whom, or 180,000, are requiring immediate attention ; that is, presuming that the two-sixths, or 120,000 of the Uprising class, are able, with a little assistance, to provide for themselves. They require, generally, however, to be enlightened as to the proper means of attaining that of which they actually feel the want. The SuKKEN class, or 60,000 souls, we consider to include the openly vicious, the wandering, the neglected, also beggars, thieves, and the abandoned. The Sinking class, or double the number of the former, includes those who neglect religious ordinances, and the un- concerned about the best interests of their children or them- selves, (except simply to gain a Uvelihood,) also the dissipated — those, in fact, who are in a sort of transition state, and not yet chargeable with crime. The Uprising class, or one-third of the entire population, will and do provide instruction for their offspring, to a certain, extent, and of the best they can afford according to their means, and thus so far endeavour to bring up their children ' in the way they should go.' They are the most forward to send them to a moral training school, if within their reach. Many parents, indeed send their children to the model schools sect' I.] SUNKEN, SINKING, AND UPEISING.' 6,5 of the Free Normal Seminary daily, from one extremity of this city- to another, for this purpose. For the Sunken class there has been proTlded a certain variety and amount of machinery, viz., prisons, penitentiaries, a bridewell, a night asylum, two houses of refuge, and a ragged or industrial school; all these, howerer, are cor- rectives, restraints, or restoratives. Where are the preven- tatives f A few of the youth of this class have been induced to enter one or other of the charity or public schools ; others have found their way to some ordinary elementary school; and a very few- have been 'excavated' or picked up by the unremitting exertions of Sabbath school teachers. Neverthe- less, the condition of the masses has been, and still is, truly deplorable: filth, vice, dissipation, ungodliness, and crime, abound ; and the whole combination of healing infiuences is so extremely trifling and inefficient, compared vrith the evils to be cured, that this class of human beings appears as degraded as ever. Although a very few, by means of Sabbath school instruction, have been elevated from the Sunken to the Up- rising class, yet there is such an annual accession of numbers descending from the Sinking to the lowest class, that the numbers of the Sunken class are increasing in an alarming ratio. What, then, is to be done with the Sinking class— con- sisting, as we have stated, of one-third of the whole com- munity, or 120,000 souls? and can nothing more be done for the Sunken class, composing 60,000 souls? The Sinking class ought to be the objects of our most intense interest. There is more hope of their yielding to means than of the abandoned or Sunken class. They are, however, careless, and their carlessness renders them helpless. They will not, and do not, help themselves or their offspring in any step towards religious, moral, or even intellectual improvement. This class is the grand platform for the aggressive influence of Christian philanthropy. They are fast sinking, being left alone; but, by God's blessing on the use of right means, they E 66 DIFFEEENT GRADES OP SOCIETY. [SECT. I. might be elevated to the condition of the TJpeising. To leave them to themselves, as has hitherto been done, is, too generally to leave them to perish. Even in a political point of view, the Sunken class, to a large extent, actually are an incubus on the industry and prosperity of the country, and are the ready instruments of every turmoil that may be raised by wicked or designing men. Then why not snatch the youth of the Sinking class, who will become the parents of a future generation, from this vortex of destruction, by the only available means on our part, viz., moral school training, based on the Word of God ? Ragged Schools.* Within the last few years, whenever the question has been put. What is to be done with that class in large towns which we have termed Sdstken 1 the almost instinctive answer has been, Ragged Schools, — Oh, — Ragged Schools! Ragged schools may be very efficient, or they may be little better than asylums for taking children from the streets, keeping them out of harm's way, and training them to order. This, however, is something. It is something to get such urchins to sit quietly for a time in school, and walk orderly in line, two and two, on the street. We believe that religious in- struction is communicated in almost all of these schools by Christian men, who take a deep interest in their important charge. The four schools we have visited, in three different cities, were of this description. But in none of them was moral training pursued as a system ; and the school premises were not arranged for such a purpose. The system of in- struction and of training is the great question, not the mere fact of their being termed ragged schools; and after all, what are one or two to even our second-rate cities, which require 40 or 50 ? The fact of some ragged schools being conducted on Sabbath evenings merely, or on week-day even- • Now frequently termed — Ihdustrial. SECT. I.] RAGGED SCHOOLS. 67 ings, mnst show at once, in their case at least, the inapplica- bility of such to form correct moral habits in that class, who ought to attend such institutions. In fact, we consider evening ragged schools to have a very direct demoralizing ten- dency, even although the sexes are taught in separate rooms, and be dismiBsed with a few minutes of difference in point of time. The public seem to rest with the utmost compla- cency upon a ragged school, held at whatever time it may be, or managed on whatever principle, as if the work were done, whether it be well conducted, or upon the common rote system, which, in all parts of the country, has rendered the effects of education upon the poor and working classes the merest trifle, in a moral, and even in an intellectual point of view. The name, ragged sphool, is very well to excite public sympathy and bring out subscriptions ; but as yet, even for the individual schools that have been established, the small amount received in subscriptions is no. proof of a wide-spread interest in their favour. The one or two ragged schools established have certainly diminished the number of little rascals on our streets.* The nurseries for crime, however, are still going on, and the stock of prowlers will quickly be replenished, as we have already shown. A more compre- hensive scheme is, therefore, necessary ; and anything short of the complete Moral Training System, we are convinced from experience, will fail of the intended results. The feeding of the children may be an expedient, and a prudent step at the outset in regard to some who are without parents or guardians, and, therefore, without a home ; we think, how- ever, that no calm reflecting mind would contemplate the continued feeding of all the city children who require such training, or boarding them in asylums away from their parents, of whatever character these may be, thus breaking up every * Many schools, however, lately established in country towns, have adopted the popular term kagged, bjit which contain simply such children as properly-constituted parochial schools present, and to the masters of which the pupils pay a weekly fee. 68 DIFFEEENT GRADES OP SOCIETT. [SECT. 1, family tie, preventing the moral reflex influence they might have on their parents at home, and severing for ever the almost only remaining links of patriotic feeling that can bind the youth of our country to the land of their birth. The Initiatory Model School of the Normal Seminary, which, in 1830, was removed to the Saltmarket, was intended expressly for profligate, or what are now termed ragged children, and also to exhibit the power of the Training System. In the edition of 'Moral Training for Large Towns,' 1833-4, we gave a tabular statement of the requirements of this city, and of several other large towns, in regard to the number of initiatory (infant) and juvenile schools for the moral and intellectual training of the sinking and sunken youthful population, in addition to all the ordinary schools that were then in existence, with the supposed cost of the sites, including play-grounds, and the erection of buildings. Taking the cost of such schools as have been established since or about that period in Glasgow, and several other towns, we find that our calculation, high as it then appeared, is greatly below the truth — in many instances at least 30 per cent. It follows, that if we are to have eflScient machinery, situated in suitable localities, we must pay fm- it. If we calculate the number of initiatory and juvenile moral training schools required for Glasgow alone — taking the same proportion as we did in 1834, with the increased population, amounting, in 1851, to 360,000 souls — it would require, to fill up the gap in the number of elementary schools, at least 80 initiatory and 160 juvenile additional to all the existing schools of all sorts, so as not to overcrowd them, and give a thoroughly intellectual, and a direct moral training to the masses. The question is, from what quarters are the requisite funds to be procured for such a mighty object as Moral Training Schools, in such requisite numbers, in large towns ? We delight in the extension of voluntary contributions for the poor and the outcast, both in regard to their temporal SECT. I.j SUNKEN, SINKING, AND UPEISING. G9 and spiritual wants. The present generation, however, will be in their graves, we fear, before private subscriptions pro- vide the requisite amount, for the establishment of Moral Training Schools in the particular localities of large towns where they are most imperiously required. The next genera- tion must first be trained praxiticaUy to give, as well as enlightened on the duty of giving ; and then we shall require very small Government grants, indeed, for either the preven- tion or punishment of crime. For the sake of the children of the wynds, lanes, and ven- nels in the heart of the city, we must pay very high for moral training ground, as well as for school sites. How foolish to imagine that it will do to establish a few schools for the youth of those destitute localities in the suburbs, perhaps a couple of miles distant, where cheaper ground may indeed be had — perhapis at one-fifth of the price of the former ! If children are expected to attend schools, they must be placed in the neighljourhood of their dwellings. We are borne out by a thousand proofs, that until such machinery be set up in all our towns, our population cannot be elevated. In regard to the most sunken of our population, it is a question, whether we, as a nation, are at liberty to punish crime until the young have received such an intellectual, religious and moral training as might prevent it. Mode of Bringing out the most Degraded or Sunken Class into School. The general desire of the public, in establishing a school in a low neighbourhood, is to bring in the poorest and most neglected children first. This may be accomplished to a certain extent, as in the case of a ragged school, which is more than half-filled by those suspected of crime ; or by the police pulling up wandering urchins who live by begging or stealing, who visibly infest our streets, and who, instead of being charged a quarterly or weekly fee for the support of the 70 DIPFEKENT GRADES OF SOCIETY. [sECT. I, master, are taught gratis, and fed, and clothed, and lodged when necessary. This, we say, may secure that to a small extent the poorest and most neglected children will be brought out first. Not so, however, where no police can interfere, and no food or clothing is offered, but where the directors of the school expect that it will be self-supporting, or very nearly so, and where the necessary expenses can only be supplemented by voluntary contributions, however slowly or reluctantly these sadly oppressive annual subscriptions can be gathered in from the pockets of Ithe tenacious, when the feelings get cooled down by one or two years' calm reflection ! In this the ordinary, and which must be something like the permanent mode of establishing schools, we never can get out the worst children /rs<. For example, should three schools be required for a given locality, whether for Sabbath or week-day instruc- tion, the most enlightened parents will send out their children to the first school ; the middling sort of characters, and a few of the worst, to the second ; and the last school alone will secure that the worst and most neglected are brought in. In the course of two or three years, should a proper system be pur- sued in all the three schools, and all be on a level as to fees and the status of the schoolmasters, then the children will become so amalgamated that it will be impossible to discover which at first were of the sunken, sinking, or uprising classes. I never knew one school anywhere bring out the most neglected children in the first instance, or until provision was made for the whole amount of children being brought under instruction at a cheap rate. Let us keep in view that the taste for edu- cation and training must be cultivated before there can exist a demand on the part of the sinking classes, and that there is nearly as much aversion on the part of parents to send their children to what is termed a poor school, as they themselves exhibit to attend a church exclusively for the poor. The Ageioultueal Population Are so intimately associated with our towns, and so greatly SBCt. l.J AGEICULTtrRAL POPULATION. 71 assist in increasing their extent by constant immigration, that we must say one word respecting their condition, and the means of their physical and moral improremetit, — ^points that must affect to a considerable extent the future condition of every town population. Our particular province is the im- provement of towns, for the sake of which, as we have afready stated, not one-tenth has been proposed or attempted to be done that their importance demands. Agricultural and industrial schools are now the fashion of the day, and a very grand movement they are in the right direction, were other more important points not neglected or overlooked. Every one now knows, or ought to know, of the mighty increase in the productiveness of the land when well drained, properly manured, etc., and when a sufficient capital is employed in its cultivation, yielding, as it does, a very large produce; what, then, would be the product of the millions of acres of almost waste lands, were they under proper tillage, and capital embarked in the enterptise? Tens of thousands of families might find employment in this way, were agricultural villages scattered all over the country, from which persons so situated might proceed to their farms and agricultural labour, in which schools also might be esta- blished, having agricultural training as well as moral and intellectual training in view, thus saving the necessity of over- crowding large cities, or of any individual emigrating ■ to a foreign country in search of work or wealth. Facilities of transit now exist which did not fifty years ago. Railroads' might now bring into a large town of a morning the produce of such agricjiltural villages fifty or sixty miles dista,nt, and which could not at that period be so easily brought from the distance of ten miles ; and whilst the towns would become a market for the produce of the dairy, the garden, and the farm, the villages in turn would prove an excellent market for the produce of the factory and workshops of the town. Were this done in Ireland, as well as in some parts of Scotland and England, our large cities would not be so contaminated by 72 DirFEEENT GRADES OF SOCIETY. [SECT. I. the iiiflax of ignorant and tintrained. families, which, like locusts, almost uniformly blight every locality or neighbour- hood on which they happen to rest. Let the female child in town, in addition to the teaching and training we have recommended before thirteen years of age, be also trained to such industrial work as might render her a tidy and careful housewife ; and at that age, although she should enter a factory, she would not, as at present, on being married, be so wholly ignorant of those duties which would render home comfortable to her husband and family. In both country and town schools, the sewing and stitching and darning and cutting or shaping processes ought to be attended to ; and how to ventilate a room on scientific prin- ciples, how to make a fire give little or great heat, having in view the strata of the coal or fibres of the timber, sweeping the floor without raising the dust, etc. These and many other common things are not to be despised in girls' industrial school training. Both sexes, in town and country, should also acquire a thorough knowledge of some points of science aUd the arts, such as the lever, pulley, screw, etc., and the air, water, etc., in their various component parts and tendencies — the circula- tion of the juices in plants — blood in the animal frame — ^the revolutions of the heavenly bodies and changes of seasons, with a thousand other subjects which oral gallery training lessons daily present. In the country, of course, special attention ought to be paid to agriculture, both in its theory and prac- tice, taking care, however, that no variety of subjects intro- duced shall in the slightest degree interfere with the daily Bible and Moral training. The practical error of modern philanthropists is this, that cure is preferred to prevention. Hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling are freely provided for jails, bridewells, penitentiaries, convict ships, and penal settlements. How much is given in the way of prevention ? In former editions we gave tabular statements of these facts ; now, however. SECT. I.] SUNKEN, SINKING, AND UPRISING CLASSES. 73 they are unnecessary, as they are to be found in the reports of all our poor-law and other commissioners — indeed, in almost every public journal. Should a child, convicted of crime, be trained and restored to his parents and friends as a hopeful character, such an achievement is at once chronicled and hailed as a wonder. No money is to be spared upon such. But if funds are asked in order to prevent one hundred children by means of moral (including, of course and of necessity, intel- lectual) training, from entering or pursuing such devious paths as must eventually render them criminals, at all events wicked and reckless characters, you are answered by a significant lopk or shake of the head. The truth is this, the public have little or no faith in such matters. They see the fact of one having been committed for crime — they do not ielieve in the power of prevention. They make nothing of the promise attached to "Train up (not simply teach) a child in the way he should go.' Should a poor fellow be con- demned to be executed, however, then crowds of Christian ladies and gentlemen flock daily to his cell, while hundreds of poor, ignorant, thoughtless wretches, who are fast sinking into helpless profligacy, are left without a single visitor to warn, instruct, or point them the way to piety and virtue. Christians of all denominations are much more occupied in the field of cure than of prevention. Few have faith in the preventative principle. All hands are held up and purses opened for the establishment of an institution for juvenile delinquents, or a female penitentiary (aU excellent in their way; and highly necessary in our present partial nibbling system ;) and when subscriptions fail, a vote of Parliament is easily procured to any amount, as a supplement to voluntary con- tributions ; but as to the use of direct means for the prevention of crime, or Moral school training, mankind are sadly sceptical; and yet one thousand pounds expended to prevent, might save at least ten thousand, which must be spent in the way of punish- ment or cure. How few, how very few are restored to virtue by all the 74 CONDITION AND WANTS, ETC. [SECT. I, checks and restoratives that are so freely estabUshed for culprits! We presume not to found an argument upon one fact, but we shall state one out of many that might be mentioned, although, we must confess, it is perhaps the most striking proof of the power of the natural. Scriptural, and training system that could be adduced. Three or four years after the establishment of the model and normal school, such effects had been produced upon the youth of a low popu- lation, that I judged it expedient to try the experiment upon the very lowest and most sunken class. Accordingly, spacious school premises were prepared, including a play-ground or uncovered school-room, in the Saltmarket of this city, which is the very concentration of vice and crime. This was an initiatory school for children under six years of age, and one of the model and practising schools of the Normal Seminary for preparing teachers to conduct the system. The school was very fully attended from 1830 to 1837, a period of seven years, and until the whole model and practising schools were concentrated in one building. The children, to the number of 240, were collected from the lanes, wynds, and vennels • of the Saltmarket and Bridgegate — from the well-known and far-famed Goosedubs, and from the High Street and lanes running therefrom. Beyond all our hopes or expectations, after the strictest inquiry, with one exception,* it is not known to this day that any one from that moral training school has ever been brought before a magistrate, or accused of crime. We should not have been surprised, from the character of the population from which the children were drawn, although iifty cases had occurred. On the contrary, the master-trainer personally knows very many young men and women of excel- lent character, who are training up their own children in an exemplary manner. To God be all the praise. From this fact we may at least draw a very strong inference. • One additional case was discovered at Paikhurst Prison of a lad who, twenty-five years ago, had attended this model school tliree weehi, and who recognized me while visiting that institution, SECT. I.] CHRISTIAN PAEENT IN TOWKS. 75 MOKAL EeSTILTS. Practical honesty was so thoroughly established that pence had often lain untouched on the desk in school for days, and in the flower-border of the play-ground strawberries and currants were each year permitted to ripen, and were never touched, although within reach of all when freely engaged in their sports. A training lesson could seldom be conducted on honesty, and ' look at everything and touch nothing,' except when some of the little Saltmarket rascals outside, on observ- ing the gatei)pen for a moment, ran in and plucked a flower or berry. Sometimes they were laid hold of, and brought into school as an example, and made the basis of a gallery training lesson to the whole scholars. The Cheistian Paeent in Towns. But to enter more particularly into the moral circumstances of the best constituted families of town life : The workman of respectability in vain looks around him to see in what way, from morning till evejdng, he can have his children properly superintended and trained, when he himself is necessarily absent, and when they cannot or will not remain with their mother — how, in fact, he can best fulfil the divine command. At length, even under the most favourable circumstances, he is forced to send his children to a school where they are taught it may be, much that is right, but where, from its construction and arrangements, they cannot be trained; and there being- no provision for the children during the time allotted to play, they are left to amuse themselves on the streets, or in an un- superintended waste-ground, and to be trained, as they must be, by any and every sort of companion with whom they happen to meet. The Christian parent, therefore, sends out his children in the morning, and receives them back in the evening, each day injured in their habits, both of mind and body, by the unsuperintended training of the streets. If this be the case with parents of this respectable class, what must 76 CONDITION AND WANTS, ETC. ,[SECT, 1. be the condition of the children of the Sinking and Sunken In rural districts, with few companions, and where the boy follows his father at the plough, or his mother in the dairy, the training of a family is comparatively an easy task to that of a town ; for although there may be greater opportunities of intellectual improvement in towns than in the country, there is also a greater danger of moral contamination from the sympathy of numbers. And when we consider the effect of factories and workshops, crowded as they are with untrained and often dissolute young people. Christian parents feel it almost an impossibihty to bring up their children as they would, and as the Word of God directs. In this department of duty they are powerless. They may teach or instruct on a Sabbath ; but what can the labourer, the mason, the joiner, or the mechanic do for his children during the week, when he himself may be daily at work a couple of miles distant from home, or closely confined to a factory in his own neighbour- hood ■? Such persons leave early in the morning, when the younger children are in bed, and return in the evening, when he and they are ready for sleep ; or should he come home to meals, the meeting and parting are of the most hurried de- scription. The elder branches of the family are similarly employed, and the younger are generally on the streets or learning to read in school. The father, in fact, seldom meets or sees his children, and the mother is so closely engaged with her babe, or in preparing the food, or she is up to the shoulders in the washing-tub, and so occupied with other household duties, as to do little in the way of training. The Kttle boy, in fact, will not be tied to her apron-strings — out he wiU go, and out he gets to the streets and lanes, to crawl in the mud, and play with such companions as he can find. He may not care for the Sunday instructions of his father or mother, but he cares for, and readily copies, the language and bad practices of his street companions. The parents may Uach, but companions in reality train. SECT. I.J PASTORAL VISITATIONS, 77 We are speaking of the Uprising or Christian parent, who honestly, and sincerely desires to bring up his children 'in the way they should go.' But what shall we say of that large or Sinking class, who care not how their offspring get on, provided only they can, as it is technically termed, ' get their living ;' or of a still lower class in the scale, the Sunken, who set their children the example of positive dissipation, and even encourage them to lie, steal, and deceive, just as it may suit their purpose? If the Christian parent, indeed, finds it an almost insurmountable difficulty to bring up his family amidst the vicious contamination of a town, what must be the issue in the case of the Sinking and Sunken classes, who are either careless or utterly averse to everything that is sacred or moral? We have shown to a certain extent the exposed condition of youth in large towns, and the impracticability of parents superintending and morally training their children, whatever teaching or instruction they may give them occasionally as they have opportunity ; also, what may be expected from the week-day school if conducted on the rote or monitorial systems. An important question presents itself, Do children of the SuNKEK class attend or can they be got to attend divine service? and when there, do they or those of the Sinking class, with minds and habits so uncultivated, under- stand even one-fourth of what they do hear ? I know they do not. There are other means of religious and moral improve- ment to a certain extent in operation, at which we may also glance, and see whether there does not still remain a funda- mental gap in the training of the young, intellectually, physi- cally, religiously, and morally. Pastoeai Visitations to Families in Towns. These are certainly highly influential, not merely in com- municating instruction,' but in inducing parents to send their children to school, and themselves to attend church. Pastoral 78 CONDITION AND WANTS, ETC. [SECT. I. visits by the clergyman may be accomplished once or twice in the year — to the sick, of course, more frequently. Misr sionaries may oftener repeat these household visits. Great things are expected from the visits of pastors and mis- sionaries ; but when performed, what members of the family are generally met with at home by these gospel messengers ? Why, the mother and the babe. The father and elder branches of the family cannot leave their factory, or their workshop, or even their fields ; and what substantial reli- gious training, or even iastruction, can be expected from these periodical and distant visitations to the children, the risiug generation, who may remain ignorant ? What, then, is to be done ? Oh ! educate them, — give them education, say the public. Well, what education do they generally receive 1 We have already said that even were this provided, ordinary elementary teaching wiU not accomplish the work without moral training. Whatever Christian or friendly influence the minister or missionary may have on the family by these visits, and certainly they are highly important, most certainly the children are not, and cannot be, religiously or morally trained by these means. By whom then are they trained, and what kind of training do they receive ? In agricultural districts, the father and other adult members of the family, in some cases, may be able to leave their out-of- door work, and meet the pastor ; not so in towns, where the largest proportion are engaged in factories or workshops, in erectmg buildings, and in other out-of-door employments, and in circumstances, too, where each is, in a measure, dependent on his neighbour workmen, and, therefore, his services cannot be dispensed with. Without undervaluing ministerial in- fluence in the pulpit and household visitations one iota, we would only rest upon these as parts and heads of a great and powerful machinery for Christian and moral improvement, and must contend that in our educational economy for the training of youth there still exists a ' wide gap,' which the training school alone can supply. The argument, indeed, SECT. I.] INFLtlENCB OF SABBATH SCHOOLS. 79 remains in fall force, even with the addition of all the visits of elders, deacons, ladies' committees, and Bible and tract dis- tributors. Influence of Sabbauh Schools. Sabbath schools have done much in giving religious in- struction to some of the poor and working classes. They have, in fact,, been the only substantial means of diffusing Scriptural knowledge among our heathenish or neglected population.* Low and degraded as masses of our city popu- lation are at this moment, but for the disinterested and con- tinued exertions of our Sabbath school teachers, they would have been decidedly more ignorant and sunken still. A clergyman who desires to bring in the heathen portion of Ms people, is without the only efficient instrument to work by, if he be without Sabbath schools ; and when we propose the week-day moral training school as more efficient still, we do so because, in addition to the daily practical training, as much religious instruction is received hy the children on each of the six days of the week as on the seventh. Having said this much, we must glance at the actual amount of Sabbath school influence, so as to enable us to judge whether something additional be not necessary to the reUgious instruction of one day in seven, and what the power of instruction is, when unaccompanied by practical training. The deplorable ignorance and immorality of our youth led • We are here drawing no comparison Tjetween the preaching of the gospel from the pulpit and Sabbath school instruction; for the youth of the Sunken class seldom or nerer hear pulpit discourses, and therefore cannot be impressed by them. It is painful to observe how few children, even of the Upkisinq class, are brought by their parents to the house of prayer, after the good old custom of publicly as well as prirately worshipping together; indeed it is considered unnecessary that they should provide requisite sittings for their offspring. One sitting is oftentimes, nay, yery generally, only provided for a whole family. In England, Sabbath school children are generally brought to church in a body, under the superintendence of their teachers. 80 CONDITION AND WANTS, ETC. [SECT. I. to the establishment of Sabbath or Sunday schools, which, with some modifications, have chiefly religious instruction in view. Much good, we have already said, has arisen from these humble and unobtrusive seminaries ; but we may add that the amount is as nothing in comparison with the evils to be cured or prevented. The Sabbath school is, at best, a teaching on one day in seven, opposed to training of an opposite tendency during the other six days of the week; and we must admit the sad fact, that Sabbath schools have been inefficient, to a great extent, from the inexperience of young teachers when they first engaged in the work, they being ignorant of the art of teaching, and the use of simple language and illus- trations. The too limited continuance, also, of those young men and women who engage in this labour of love, leads to frequent changes, which are productive of serious injury. Moreover, after a year or two, when a young man may have worked himself into something like an efficient system of communication, should be happen to 'marry a wife,' the parlour fireside frequently and too quickly becomes too strong a point of attraction, and he instinctively excuses him- self, by saying 'he cannot come;' the intended help-meet ila.us becoming, in reality, a help-hinderance. Many children, without doubt, have been led to attend public worship in consequence of the instructions received in Sabbath schools, and through their instrumentality some, by God's blessing, also, have become true Christians. In truth, the Sabbath school has been by far the most efficient instru- ment for excavating a portion of the heathen population from the general mass of ignorance and depravity. But we are apt to overrate the capabiKties and results of a system, good as it is, which has to contend not merely as one day against six days, but one or two hours' teaching against six days' training — the more powerful influence of example and sympathy of companionship of the six days, opposed to the simple example of the teacher and his instructions on the seventh. To meet the sympathy of companionship in what is evil, we ought to SECT. I.] INFLUENCE OP SABBATH SCHOOLS. 81 oppose it by the only antidote, viz., the sympaffiy ofcompanion- ship in what is good. Let the morning Bible lessons of the week-day training school, therefore, be made the basis of the practice of the children daring each ; day, under the superintendence of an accomplished master-trainer indoors at lessons, and out of doors at play. Let the same stmpatht OF NTJMBEES, wMch in towns so materially leads to evil, be laid hold of, on Scriptural principles, as in the moral training school on the side of good ; and then, but not till then, will the Sunken class be elevated, |the Sinking class kept from falling, and the Uprising class be safe in bringing up their offspring amidst^the contaminating influences of a city atmo- sphere. Lidependently of the effect of Sabbath school instruction upon the scholars, society gains much, very much, from the influence produced upon the mind and habits of the teachers themselves; for out of this class of disinterested young persons, iu future life, may be numbered the truest and most practical of our philanthropists. We know few philanthropists, indeed, who are thoroughly practical men, who have not, at one time or other, served an apprenticeship as Sabbath school teachers. I trust we have stated enough to show the necessity for the establishment of a new element in the education of the young, and especially in large towns. We might give a host of facts of a revolting and almost incredible nature, in support of our argument — facts of a moral, intellectual, and physical kind, drawn from the personal observation of ourselves and others — ^from that of governors of prisons, bridewells, penitentiaries, and poor-law unions, with many of which the reader must already be familiar ; but more particularly might we present facts in reference to the inefficiency of our present system of school education, and of schoolmasters employed, and of the actual ignorance and immorality of the young, even of mere infants, throughout the land, from the published reports by Her Majesty's inspectors of schools, commissioners of 82 CONDITlbN AND "WANTS OF THE [SECT. I. poor-law unions, and other commissioners, who have been appointed to investigate the state of the poor, and the mental and physical condition of those employed in the working of mines and factories. These exhibit an amount of crime, and ignorance, and immorality, hardly to be credited, and which, in fact, we must have considered 'overcharged, had not a close personal investigation of forty years, here and elsewhere, taught us, that really the half has not been told. School training, commencing early, on the principles here recommended, if widely extended, might be the means, in one generation, of altering the face of society. Let parents train their own children, it is said ; we affirm the statement, with this addition, at all times, and on all occasions, when they can, i.e., when th&j^ are with them. Bat if we hope to have parents capable of morally training their offspring, we must train the whole youth of the present generation. It is not merely one or two hours of instruction on a Sabbath, or half an hour of a week evening, that is the Divine command — but ' as they walk by the way, as they sit down, and as they rise up,' ' line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little.' This, without the assistance of a moral school trainer, it is evident, parents generally, in any grade of society, do not and cannot accom- plish. Early school training we earnestly contend for, before evil propensities are formed into habits. Prevention is better than cure. We ought to ' begin at the beginning.' If the next generation of thieves, pickpockets, and other pests of society is to be diminished, let us have moral training schools. They will prove to be the cheapest police.* If the degraded condition of colliers and miners is to be elevated, * The master of police, in 1833, stated to a teaclier in one of the most populous and sunken suburbs of Glasgow, that since the establishment of the Moral Training day and Sunday schools, three years previously, in that locality, the commitments of juvenile offenders had been diminished two-thirds. SECT. 1.] SUNKEN, SINKINa, AND UPRIStNG CLASSES. 83 what can we so effectively establish among them as moral trcdmiff schools f The same machinery would, no douW, pre- vent depredations in our orchards and gardens. If cleanliness is to be promoted in the persons, families, and habitations of the poor of our city-lanes, we know of nothing that would be so thoroughly influential for its establishment as well as per- manence, as the universal establishment of moral training schools. If the church is to be supplied with intelligent and Christianly prepared members, can the philanthropist present a more suitable instrument than TJCATION. [SECT. I. the spirit and intelligence of its masters, and the untiring Christian zeal of its accomplished Secretary, who has done much in adding to the system previously pursued. The CoBunittee of Directors is formed of Churchmen and Dissen- ters of all denominations. The principles upon which it is founded are termed Liberal; that is to say, that, however extended the secular branch«s to be taught may be, nothing in religion shall be taught which can offend the conscientious scruples of any sect or party; however widely differing or opposed these may be to each other. Portions of the Bible may be and are read in school by the master to the children, but they must be so without note or comment. The pupils may listen to the reading of Scripture, but no means must be taken to enable them to understand it, lest the attempt should lead to the adoption of any particular sentiment that could savour of ' sectarianism.' Why this fear in directors professedly desirous of re- ligiously elevating the masses of society, that the revelations of the Bible should be understood ? We believe there is not one of the enlightened and intelligent teachers of that widely- spread Institution, who would be content to be so crippled in teaching any branch of elementary or secular science, from any acknowledged standard on the subject. Experience, I think, has snificiently proved that although it is possible to get nearly aE communions to send their children to one school, and have them taught and trained together in the same classes, both in secular and Scriptural subjects ; yet if the committee is to be composed of all denominations,* the * This is decidedly the case respecting our Normal Seminary. For thirty-two years, children of all denominations have attended our Model and Practising Schools, including Episcopalians, Quakers, Socinians,'and a few Roman Catholics; the Directors, for seventeen years, being members of the Established Church of Scotland, and the remaining period, the same Individuals maintaining the same principles as mem- bers of the Free Church of Scotland. The average attendance of pupils during the last fifteen years, of all these denominations, has been about 900. The Normal Students also have been of various religious com- SECT. I.J ENGLISH NATIONAL SOCIETY SCHOOLS. 95 ^ Bible must either be excluded, or, whieh is pretty nearly the same thing, it must neither be explained nor analyzed. This ') is a solemn question, and a most practieal one at the present moment. We repeat; — Why be more fearful of children understanding the plain meaning of a passage of Scripture than a rule in grammar, the meaning of a word or phrase, or a lesson in geography, geology, astronomy, or botany ? As Bibles are not placed iu the hands of the pupils when the lesson of the day is read to them by the master, and no analysis is made of its contents, the principle terms of which may or may not be understood by the pupils, we consider such a system of religious instruction inefficient as a basis for Moral Training. Under this method, respect for the Bible is not likely to be heightened in the minds of the pupils, nor much interest excited in its contents. We do not say that Christian trained men from this Insti- tution may not in their own schools explain or analyze the meaning of Scripture terms ; only this, that such would be contrary to the principle on which they were instructed in the great Institution in which they were prepared as masters. We disapproTC, as unsuited to our purpose, of the Monitorial or Lancasterian plan, so much practised in the British Schools. We mean the having the work of a master executed by ap- prentices, whose age and limited experience necessarily pre- vent their exercising that requisite moral influence on their pupils, without which, education is defective both in an in- tellectual and a moral point of view. National School System of England. The National School System of England, under the Estab- munions, and were natives, till lately,* of nearly every county of Eng- land and Scotland; several from the Colonies also have attended. Dtiiing the year 1837 alone, when the Model Schools of the Normal Seminary were first concentrated in one building, 137 Normal Stu- dents were enrolled. * See Extension of Training Colleges. 96 DIFFEEENT SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION. [SECT. I. lished Church, may next occupy our attention. It is also Monitorial, to a great extent, and is conducted chiefly on the rote system. In these schools no particular system of communication is proposed — provision is not made for a play-ground — for play- ground superintendence by the master or mistress, nor for a review of the children's moral conduct in a play-ground on their return to the school-room. No oral Bible lessons are conducted, and although the Bible is in the hands of the chil- dren, which is unquestionably something, yet their attention is chiefly confined to extracts from Scripture history, without its being made a principle to draw the moral lesson. No barrier exists to the introduction of any amount of elementary subjects to be taught, or improvements in the mode of communication, or of Bible and moral training. In a number of the schools under this society, the complete Train- ing System has been of late years introduced by the clergy- men of the parishes, under masters trained in our Institution. Normal Training Institutions have been lately established in many of the dioceses of England, in which a greatly increased amount of elementary knowledge is communicated by able teachers, under clerical superintendence ; but the attention of the students is more particularly confined to the acquisition of knowledge than to the practical art of communicating it, or to Moral School Training. Irish National School System. The Irish National School System, established by law, is chiefly Monitorial ; no particular mode of communication is provided, either in secular or sacred subjects, although the rote system is principally followed. Scriptural historical extracts, such as cannot offend the views of any party, or com- municate any particular truth, are used — the Bible itself is excluded as a text-book. Protestant or Roman Catholic doc- trines are not permitted to be jcommunicated during school SECT. I.] IRISH NATIONAT. 97 hours. We therefore consider the Irish School System must continue inefficient as an eleyator of the masses, both in an intellectual and moral point of view. Were the Training System, in its completeness, established in Ireland, in all its parishes, that interesting population, after fifteen or twenty years' training of the young, would present a mightily improved aspect. Such, indeed, would be 'jtistice tOj' and a cure for, Ireland. But what say the priests? With this We must not grapple here, and shall leave the discussion of the subject to other and abler hands. I may state that in 1837, in company with a friend, I visited every school in the South of Ireland I could set my eyes upon, and during the whole of these visits I did not hem- one question put on any point of secular or elementary lessons read or repeated in any of the schools, with one exception. The subject read, and which was well read by the children, was Peter walking on the water to meet Jesus. At my request the teacher put a few questions. ' The first was. Who was Peter? Answer — The first Pope. But what else? A Bishop. Anything else ? The first Pope. These answers pa,ssed unnoticed by the teacher. This school was endowed by an annual Government grant of £16 10s. One teacher of a small village, also paid from the Government grant, con- fessed to me that the moment the hour struck, at which his public duties closed, three o'clock p.m., he regularly taught the Roman Catholic Catechism, without the children moving from their desks. In none of the schools we visited did we find provision made for moral training, and no exercise of the understanding whatever. If4t be true that the formation of character should be the great object and end of all education,' then those practical points which bear upon this principle ought chiefly to occupy the attention of educationalists. It is with principles, there- fore, and not minute points, that we desire to occupy our attention, although, certainly, every essential minute point tends to form an entire machine. When therefore, we G 98 DIFPEEENT SYSTEMS OP EDUCATION. [sECT. I. presume to notice different systems of education, we have no desire to analyze the variety of subjects, or the particular mode of intellectual communication which any or all of them may present, except in so far as these bear upon our great principle. Moral (based on the plain meaning of the terms of ' Scripture,) and Intellectual School Training. The credit or discredit of our own or any other educational system must not rest on the success or failure of any parti- cular teacher or trainer — discredit is only attachable to the system itself, when the principles recommended by it are found unsuitable to the professed object in view. SECTION I. CHAPTER VII. HATE INTANT SCHOOLS FAILED ? Infant Schools for training children of from three to six years of age, when pursued on natural and Bible principles, hj an intelligent pious master and mistress — .when encouraged and properly supported by directors, so far as we know^ have never failed to be the most valuable and influential depart- ment in education, intellectually, physically, religiously, and morally. When another course has been pursued — when no play- ground has been provided for healthful exercise, amusement, development of character and dispositions, and moral super- intendence, and the stuffing, or mere telling system, instead of training and gently leading the young mind, have been pur- sued, Infant Schools have failed, and frequently gone down. We may particularize some of the causes why what are termed Infant Schools have frequently languished or failed. The old 'Infant School System' was almost exclusively confined to observing, and to questions on the external appearance of objects and prints, more especially in natural history of animals, with a few prints of the historical parts of Scripture. For example — the picture of a hen, a duck, a tiger, may be presented to the eye of the children, and they are asked, What is this ? or. What does this represent ? A hen. How many feet ? Two. What do yon call an animal or bird with two feet ? A liped. The same process follows with the duck ; and the tiger, having four feet, is termed a 100 HATE INFANT SCHOOLS FAILED 1 [SECT. I. quadruped. Where do tigers live ? In Bengal. Where are hens and ducks to be found ? In farm-yards. And so on, which is all very well; and here the process stops. But the comparative forms of the duck and hen, with the oily substance mixed with the feathers of the former, enabling it to swim the better, also the form of each of their bills for the gathering of food, exhibiting the wisdom of the great Creator, and his pro- vidential care of all his creatures, form no part of what is termed, ' The Infant School System.' Should any of these things actually be told the children, still, not being pictured out by familiar illustrations, but simply by rote, no security is given that they understand what has been stated by the master or mistress. In fact, while all these questions and answers afford a little instruction at the commencement of an Infant School, yet very shortly they grow stale and unin- teresting to the young mind, from the repetition of the same questions from the same coloured prints or objects. Listless- ness and inattention therefore follow, after the lapse of a few weeks, while the children repeat the same answers; and casual visitors, listening to such astonishing replies, say, they cannot conceive ' how infants can acquire such wonderful knowledge !' On the contrary, that is to say, were the un- derstanding of the pupils exercised, and their attention kept up on natural principles ; were the picturing out principle adopted, life and activity of both body and mind would im- mediately follow, and every new or additional lesson, or revisal of an old one, would interest the children, and add to their stock of knowledge ; and the combined exercise, refreshmg air, and superintendence of a play-gfound, would greatly promote their moral culture. Were training thus substituted for mere teaching, what an unspeakable blessing would schools for infants become ! So many Infant Schools have been established, have flour- ished for a time, and then have been shut up, that a very natural question has arisen in the public mind : Have Infant Schools failed f There is generally something valuable and SECT. I.] HAVE INFANT SCHOOLS FAILED ? 101 useful in a system which we may even reject as a whole. This is the case with what are termed Infant Schools ; and although we would displace them for Initiatory Training Schools, as a more natural and better way, we cannot state that the Infant School System (which, to a certain extent, certainly has failed) has been without use as one step in the great cause of general education ; and although the. system never can, morally or intellectually, substantially elevate the young, to the height anticipated by its projectors and admirers, it is something that it has shown that in some way or other, by physical exercises, singing, etc., the attention of very young children may be arrested, and their minds directed to some of the objects around them. This no doubt has been done by many a mother, but seldom in a systematic manner. The old 'Infant School System' may be considered a complete system per se, and applicable only to a short period of infancy. It cannot be extended to the fature stages of the education of the child, whereas the Training System in its Initiatory depa,rtment is applicable to infants, and forms only part of a natural system, by which the child maybe carried forward to manhood on one principle in thesnccessive gradations of Infant, Juvenile, and Senior. It includes physical exercises as well as the Infant School System, and to the principle of observ- ing facts, it adds intellectual, Bible, and moral training. We feel it necessary to state this much, because many persons imagine that a school having infants pupils must be conducted on what is termed, ' the Infant School System,' and the Train- ing System having been in the fitrst instance applied to infants, that therefore it is only intended for and applicable to chil- dren of that early age. The question is still put — WJiy have Infant Schools failed? Infant Schools have failed, after the first few weeks or months, in making prodigies of very young children, or in realizing the too fond expectations of the public at their first estab- lishment. Children, for example, are taught to count to hundreds of millions on the black-board, and yet cannot 102 HAVE INFANT SCHOOLS FAILED ? [SECT. I. tell how many articles three knives and two spoons are, or how many animals do seven ducks and five geese make? and simply because, instead of being trained, they are taught to answer ly rote. Infant Schools have failed intellectually, because the system has been almost en- tirely confined to the names and external uses of things. Exercising the powers of observation ought certainly to be the first step in education, and, therefore, that part of the system is not to be despised or rejected; but the infant scholar generally acquires a knowledge of these facts and objects in three or four months — his interest in the undigested matter gradually ceases, listlessness follows, and parrot-like he answers the monotonous and oft-repeated questions. ' The Infant School System' fails in conducting the child from the broad outlines of every subject and object presented, to an increase of minuteness in the analysis and ' picturing out,' in which the children should take a share at every step, and during every sentence of the progress of the lesson. This is the object of the Training System, intellectually, and of course, of its Initiatory Department for infants. This natural system, therefore, when properly conducted, never has failed ; and, except from a deficiency of practical know- ledge in the trainer, it never can fail in exercising, without forcing or stufBng, the powers and faculties of children of whatever age. To those who object to the training of infants upon any principle, we remark, Infant teaching schools, without a play-ground, are decidedly injurious to the health of body and mind ; and even with a play-ground, if the stuffing sys- tem be pursued, they ought to be condemned, and in gene- ral they have proved a failure. Infant training schools, on the contrary, where bodily and mental habits are merely led and nourished, and not forced, are uniformly suc- cessful. Precocious cultivation is not according to nature. An early and long-sustained exercise of the intellect may injure the health of both body and mind, but the earliest and SECT. I.] HATE mPANT SCHOOLS FAILED ? 103 longest sustained exercise of the moral affections only adds power and energy to all the faculties. Infant Schools have frequently failed from employing un- educated persons as masters and mistresses, or persons of little or no delicacy of mind — ^ignorant, also, of human nature and its latent workings. Any one who can do nothing else, who can scarcely teach the alphabet and the proper sound of words — a young female, an old woman, or a raw lad, it is thought, *tmll do' for an Infant School. Such, indeed, may do something in infant teaching, but not in infant trainmg. The mere recounting of names of objects and pictures may be taught by such persons ; but the analysis of every point ob- served, and the picturing out of every subject ' in words,' is quite beyond their power. An infant-trainer ought to be a well-educated man; above all, well trained to the art, and possessed of at least ten times the amount of knowledge that he actually communicates — otherwise he will not be able to picture out the outlines of every subject that comes under the attention of the infants with sufficient simplicity. Infant Schools — under whatever plan they may be con- ducted — ^have sometimes failed from the undue interference of directors or directresses with the master or mistress. Every one has his or her crotchet. One does not like so much singing; another thinks marching unbecoming and vulgar, and that it assimilates too closely to military disci- pline ; as to clapping of hands, stretching out arms, and out- of-door amusement, there never were such things permitted in the school in which they were taught ! Bible lessons are too deep for little children, and therefore they are excluded, except from a print ; and how, and in what way, trainers can do without flogging the children, they cannot and will not comprehend. These things are not always said in private to the teacher, but oftentimes in public, before and in hearing of the chOdren. Is it any wonder, then, that this teasing sys- tem should wound, and worry, and dishearten the poor teacher, to the ruin of the school? 104 HAVE INFANT SCHOOLS FAII,B;d ? [SECT. I. Infant or Initiatory Schools, even on the Training System, sometimes fail, or at least are given up, of which we might present several examples, A well-trained person is appointed — the school gets well filled with pupils, and the system flourishes-;-the merits of the trainer are perceived by strangers and visitors. He is offered another school, perhaps a juve- nile one, where he is to receive a third more salary. He leaves ; and the directors, on balancing the school accounts, find that the cost of apparatus and of erecting the buildings, etc., is beyond the amount subscribed, and the children's pence amount to less than the teacher's salary. More ardour is then shown to save money than was exhibited at first to establish the school. It must be conducted in future ' cheaper.' If it is a master that occupies the situation of trainer, they must have a female for half of the money. If they had a trained female, and cannot find another at their ' cheap ' rate — then some of the ladies know a poor widow woman, who has an untrained daughter, and the family will gladly take what can be offered. 'She may be at least tried a few months, and then "they will seel'" She does try — the numbers dwindle down one-half, and then one-fourth — quickly the school loses its celebrity, and, what is worse, subscribers declare that ' Infant Schools will not do ; we wont subscribe another pound until we see the school succeeding better.' The next effort is to receive all and sundry up to the age of 8, and even 10, or 12,* to teach them to read and sew; and the teacher being kept at the starving point, the weekly pence will then sometimes pay her wages — yet the school is, of course, ruined. One overwhelming cause of the failure of Infant Schools, conducted on whatever system or principle, is this : They do * We lately visited a beautiful infant school-house of this description, in a country town, which had been erected by the generosity of the ' neighbouring ladies and gentlemen. We counted the ages of the chil- dren present, viz., 6 between i and 6 years of age, about 20 between 8 and 12, and 10 pupils from 14 to 16.— An Infant's Sehool, to be sure ! ! SECT. 1.] HAVE INFAMT SCHOOLS FAILED ? 105 not pay ! — Parents will only pay a very small fee. A thing that wont ' pay ' does not suit the fancy of this calculating age. Schools of any sort for the poor, ahd particularly for infants, will not pay, and, therefore,, they must first languish for want of replenishment, or suitable apparatus, and a com- fortable salary to the master, and at last they must be givm up, or turned into ' a penny-a-week ' reading school. ~ This is in reality one grand source of the failure of many schools for infants, on whatever system. Subscriptio'ns fail, and there- fore the doors must be closed, and the teachers turned adrift. For years the schools iourished, and all went on well, but — they cM not pay — they were not self-supporting. Some of these Initiatory moral training schools were situated in the most notoriously necessitous districts and yet were closed even when the schools were crowded, and the system in the highest state of prosperity and efficiency. Although what is termed the Infant School System, or In- fant Education, has not met the expectations of the public, in regard to substantial efficiency, yet, when conducted on the natural or training system, a school for infants under six years of age is a vastly more powerful moral as well as intel- lectual lever than a Juvenile school, or any subsequent appliance, — keeping in mind, that the younger the children are, not only are impressions more easily made, but there are fewer bad habits — mental, physical, and moral, to be uprooted by the master-trainer. SECTION II. STATISTICS OF GENEEAL SOCIETT — EDUCATIONAL AND MORAL. CHAPTER VIII. SCHOOL STATISTICS. As arguments do not always convince without facts also being stated, and as many of our readers will admit the latter, whilst they reject the former, in this Section we shall take the liberty of presenting a few statistics respecting the state of school education, and the intellectual and moral condition of great masses of the youthful population of Scotland and England, which have come more immediately under our own observation. Schools Half a Centuet Ago. As a specimen of the kind of moral and intellectual education which was conveyed in our best schools in olden times, I may state that to which I was subjected in my youthful days : — The school in which I received my primary English education, was a parochial one. In it were to he seen the children of the minister, the magistrate, the merchant, and the mechanic. • The schoolmaster was a spiritually-minded good man, and upon the whole, kind and benevolent; although his scholars could scarcely perceive this, until after the lapse of a few years, when they had left school, and could meet him on the street or in society witlumt terror. The highest point of our Bible education was, being able to read the tenth chapter of Nehemiah, or to pronounce the Scriptural name 'Mahar-shalal-hash-baz.' Every child committed the Westminster * We are not disposed to analyze the advantages or disadvantages of this mixed plan — suffice it to say that they are not all on one side of the question. SECT. II.] EDUCATIONAL AKD MOEAt. 107 AssemWy's Shorter Catechism verbatim. The greatest anxiety was to get advanced o«< of the Bible Into the Collection. When we asked the meaning of any part of onr lessons, a box on the ear generally followed, accompanied by the exclamation, 'Yon stupid fellow, why don't you know ? ' Offences were punished by the ' taws' or a stroke of the ruler. The little boys and girls, wlio could not pull the master off from his seat cherhtg the infliotion, had their ears occasion- ally pierced by sharp-pointed pens; and for a serious offence in the case of a big boy, he was placed on the top of a table at one end of the room, crowned with the master's old wig, all the scholars being enjoined, with arms at full length, to hoot and hiss him. This was moral training ! It certainly was physical training; but was it cultivating the feelings of kindness, generosity, and forbearance? Was it rendering physical exercises the means of intellectual or moral culture ? There were other punishments of a more objectionable kind, which need not be men- tioned. We had rewards, such as for committing to memory the 119th psalm within a given period. I happened to be one of these worthies, but the memory of words being wholly unconnected with the memory of ideas, not one entire part of the psalm could I repeat three months afterwards. At Candlemas term, when voluntary offerings were made, as a sup- plement to the quarterly school wages, each child was rewarded ac- cording to the amount given. The master elected a king and a queen, from amongst the highest givers, who were raised on an elevated seat, or permitted to march along the whole line of the floor, on the true principles of moral training, to indulge in pride and vanity, and sordid- ness ! Our feelings are still alive to the horror we then felt, when witnessing one child eating his farthing gingerbread, who had giv^n a small sum, and another his one or more oranges, who had given a little more, while this royal procession moved along in all its dignity! It must not be supposed that such prizes and punishments are by any means the universal practice in the principal schools of Scotland now; but, as already stated, enough remains in town and country schools still, to render this statement not unnecessary. Schools Thirty Odd Years Ago. A friend from the coimtry, who has trained himself since he left school, as, we believe, most eminent men have done, thus writes: — ' Tour remarks, on the distinction betwixt training and teaching, or tdling, remind me that the teaching of my early school days did not even amount to telling. My first lesson in arithmetic was in this wise; the master took my slate and heelivine, and jotting down several rows of figures, drew a line under them, and, returning the slate, told me 108 STATISTICS. ^SECT. II. there was a count in addition. What addition was, I did not know; he did not tell me, and I well remember I durst not ask him. The answer would hard been a pinch of the ears. Sitting down beside a boy somewhat farther adrauc^d, I inquired what the master wanted me to do? Put these figures together, said he — 3 and 4 are 7, 7 and 3 are 10 — put down nought and carry one, 1 and 6 are 7, etc., and so I wrought my way through my first exercise in addition; but the mean- ing of such words as subtraction and proportion I only learned long after leaving the parish school. Our lessons in religion formed the dreary work of the Saturday, when we fagged laboriously through the Shorter Catechism, without note or comment, or anything whatever but words — words — words, and kicks and cuffs when the memory halted, and words were awauting. Times without number we repeated the Catechism from beginning to end, without the master ever attempting to explain its meaning. It was the same in reading the Bible or any other book. The Bible scholar who was commended most, was the boy or girl who could work a tolerable passage through the list of names of those ' that sealed' in the 10th chapter of Nehemiah; and I remember it used to be somewhat of a feat in school, to spell ' Habak- kuk,' glibly, in this fashion, ' An H, and an A, and a B, and an A, and a K, and a K, and a U, and a K!' One's memory is tenacious of what occurred in school days; but I cannot tax mine with a single instance in which the master (of a parochial school in a royal burgh) even by accident, suggested a ihovght to the mind of his pupils. Overtaking a friend one morning while walking into town, we began to talk of politics — Ms favourite subject — he being also the leader of a party — Mr , I said, you have acquired a great amount of knowledge and power of public speaking. Pray, where did you acquire all your know- ledge? "Was it in school, or after you left school? He answered. In schoolj of course: IJiave Tiot, indeed, thought closely on that point; Oh, yes, it was in school ! Will you be kind enoiigh, I said, to think over the sub- ject, and tell me what you think the next time I have the pleasure of seeing you? Three weeks elapsed before we met. 1 again put the question. My friend immediately replied, with great emphasis, striking his right fist on the palm of his left hand. Sir, I learned nothing in school; I did not receive one idea upon any subject whatever ; I learned everything after I left school. I answered, that is all I desired to know. I imagined such would be the fact. Why should the understanding be permitted to lie dormant in school, while the eye and memory of sounds and figures are being exercised? A few persons of great natural powers, like this gentleman, may break through the trammels with SECT. II.] EDUCATIONAL AND MORAL. 109 which an early rote system of education may have bound them; yet what improvement, intellectual or moral, are we to expect from ' the million ' of the working classes, whose whole educa- tion is confined to the brief period of a few months, and who have neither colleges in which they may be cultivated, nor leisure to find their way through the maze of absoljite igno- rance of almost every subject, secular and sacred? School, but not fob Moral Teaining. — As one proof that moral school training was at one time at a low ebb in our parochial schools, I may mention that for some time during last century, and the commencement of the present one, re- wards of a revolting character were freely indulged in, in many of the parishes throughout Scotland. The one we shall mention is now happily exploded from every part of the country : — On Candlemas-day, when the pupils of eveiy school usually gare, according to their circumstances, a (Supplementary offering to the ordinary school fees, It was common for the teachers of some schools to permit any or all of the scholars to fight cocks within the school- room, as a reward for those free-will offerings — it heing a rule that the teacher should retain for his prirate use all the cocks killed or heaten on the occasion. One of my overseers says that he was an adept in these yearly hattles, and that his cocks generally fought ' game '-fully. His parish school was one of eleven contiguous parishes in which these fights annually took place. Another servant, a man of above 50 years of age, says that in ten parishes around the one in which he was brought up, this shameful amusement was practised, and that having borrowed an excellent cock from an old lady in the neighbourhood, which fought admirably, he gained the honour of being 'King ' for one year. The master's share of honour was to possess himself of all the cocks who were either killed, maimed, or put to flight, and on one Candlemas-day he bagged nine cocks, which he took homie with him to make a kind of broth termed ' cock-a-leekie.' Our sole object in making such a statement is to show that whilst tfie Bible was read in each of these schools, such prac- tices could not have been long permitted where moral training, on the principles of Scripture, had been perceived by the toaster, or enjoined to be pursued, by the constituted autho- 110 STATISTICS. [sect. II. rities, as a part of the school system. This may be termed sympathy of numbers in the way they should not go ! Paislet.— This town, in the year 1807, had scarcely an inhabitant which could not at least read. Public worship was attended to by nearly every individual. But in consequence of the introduction, about the year 1807, of a particular branch of manufacture, which is carried on in weaving shops, and which required the assistance of a large por- tion of all the boys and girls between the ages of six and twelve years during the whole day, they were thus deprived of the opportunity of school education ; parents, unfortunately, step by step, preferring the receipt of 2s 6d to 4s per week, from the labours of their children, rather than the payment of 3s per quarter for their schooling. Even as early as the year 1819, it was discovered that, besides a vast number of adults, nearly 3000 children, above seven years of age, were unable to read, and attended no school ; and that much of the education received by very many was merely a smattering of reading in evening pemuj-a- weeh clatses, after being fatigued by the previous work of the day. The causes producing this sad deterioration In the manners and habits of this once intellectual and moral town, are too varied to be analyzed here. Suffice it to say, that home training was almost extinguished, and no school training was provided. This early employment of children in weaving shops, too generally away from their parents, and under no moral superintendence, but the reverse, has been almost the ruin of Paisley. Twenty-five years ago five moral training schools were established there ; but from the over- whelming numbers that required attention, and the prejudice and par- simony of the Directors, in wishing to render them self-supporting, they were quickly turned into mere penny-a^weeh reading schools — becoming thus no antidote whatever to these devastating influences. The estab- lishment of two or three excellent moral training schools of late, give brighter hopes for Paisley. The largest of these, viz., Nelson's Insti- tution, having four schools with large play- grounds, was established by a bequest of £20,000, by the late John Nelson, Esq., for the benefit of his native town, under the guardianship of his relation, Archibald Gardner, Esq. Pbopoktion of Children attending School. — 'We sub- join one or two facts respecting the state of education in Scotland, gathered from an official report to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland about the year 1842 : — 'As matters at present stand, the average of professedly-educated persons among our population ought to be as 1 in 6. Now, if we take the Presbytery of Hamilton, within whose bounds are some of the most extensive collieries and ironworks, it is as 1 in 54 ! Again, in SECT. U.] EDTJCATIONAl AND MORAL. Ill Glasgow it is as 1 in 32, and this, too, in a city where there is perhaps a greater provision for the poor and labouring classes than in any other in Scotland.' Such is the truly lamentable condition of our highly- favoured and supposed well-educated country. Teaching in an Unknown Tongue The practice of teaching and of preaching to the Irish peasantry in English — a language in which they do not think, and therefore one in which they cannot express their feelings, is now, I beUeve, generally condemned. The same is now felt in regard to the Highlanders of Scotland. Preaching has always been con- ducted in their native tongue, viz., the Gaehc. Not so, how- ever, school teaching. It was quite common, within these very few years, for children to be taught to read the English Bible, one word of which they did not understand; and taught, too, in many instances, by masters who were equally ignorant! It is absoluely little better to teach English children to read their own language, when they have not been trained to un- derstand the leading words of each sentence they read. A short time ago, while conversing with a Highland gentleman on the old method of teaching in schools, he men- tioned that he, along with about a dozen other boys of a similar rank in life, had been taught by a tutor in the High- lands, and that he could read the Scriptures in English long before he understood a word of that language. I observed. What a pretty figure you would have made had your tutor put a few questions on the meaning of what you read! ' Ques- iiofig — questions,' ke said; ' why, my tutor did not understand a word of English himself t' It is only a shade better when only one half of a sentence, or certain words on which the whole meaning rests, are not understood. Being taught to Read the wokds op the Bible does nqt sect3ee a knowledge of its contents. As an example of the state of society some forty years ago, and a fair specimen of what may he found even at the present day, I may state my experience in my own Sabbath school, in the year 1816, of twenty-eight boys and girls, between the ages of eight and fourteen 112 STATISTICS. [sect. II. years, who could all read, and were nearly all possessed of Bibles; and yet only five out of the twenty-eight, on being individually questioned, knew the name of the first man, or that there ever had been a first man. These had all been taught in what are termed Scriptural schools, i.e., taught to read from a spelling book, and some parts of Scripture history. The same low state of real education too generally exists at the present day. Each lbaknikg his own paktichlak sentence peevious to the Annual Examination. — A friend of mine was dux of his class in a Scottish Grammar School. He knew, as was the custom, that each boy had simply learnt, and that most perfectly, his own particular sentence of Latin to be translated in the presence of the magistrates and parents, etc., at the annual examination. All went on smoothly and well till near the bottom of the class, when the second boy from the end of the benches was absent — of course the dolt could translate nothing but in the most incorrect, blundering style. It was not his particular sentence; but from his position this was readily excused. The one absentee destroyed the routine of the prepared sentences for the next round. In order, however, to save the credit of his class, the dux adroitly and quichly translated two sentences instead of one, and thus placed each boy in his ovm prepared ground, otherwise, there would have been one con- tinued exhibition of mistakes. The pupils at the close of the examina- tion were highly commended by the magistrates and visitors for ' their profundity in that classical lore by which the young mind acquires an enlargement and strength of thought, which in future life fits for the most exalted stations ! ' Editcational aio) Moral Condition of some of ouk Smaller Towns and Rural Parishes in 1849. — We have received a small pamphlet from a clergyman in Ayrshire, addressed to the members of his own congregation, vrhose sentiments are well entitled to respect from being thoroughly acquainted with the state of the poor in Glasgow, and who long laboured as an amateur Christian philanthropist among the offscourings and professed thieves in the city of West- minster. We subjoin a a few extracts : — ' parish contains 8000 souls, of which one thousand reside in the rural district.' ' There are eight churches of various denominations, having in all 3760 sittings— not more than 1500 persons in all, on the average, attend worship during the year.' ' Taking the proportion of one-half of the population as being able at all times to attend public worship, there are 2500 who never cross the threshold of a place of worship— who are, in short, living in a state of practical heathenism.' ' There are eleven week-day schools, attended by about 500 children. SECT, n.] EDUCATIONAL AND MOKAL. 113 or oue in sixteen of the population, instead of one in six.' ' There are five Sabbath schools ; but notwithstanding all the praiseworthy efforts of the teachers, they have yet to reclaim 700 children, the great pro- portion of whom are at this moment living in ignorance and spiritual darkness, "no man caring for their souls." The present educational condition of is thus one of great and alarming necessity. It imperatively demands the best and the earliest attention of the intelli- gent and benevolent portion of the inhabitants.' ' We believe that were an investigation entered into on this' subject throughout the country > disclosures would be made of such a nature as few have any idea of. Not only is the religious knowledge possessed by many of the most meagre and Imperfect description, but we believe that till very recently? in the case of many households, an entire copy of the holy Scriptures could not have been found.' 'The fact that so many children should be found in one small country town who are not at school — ^who are growing up in ignorance arourid our very doors, and for whom no educational provision of any kind is being made, either by their parents, or by the various churches, or by the community at large, is one which it becomes us seriously to ponder.' 'What a "Plea for a Ragged School"* does the condition of these tlKmsand children in at this moment present ! ' Our author goes on to state respecting their moral condition : — ' The great m^ority of the population are found to be living in an irreligious state ; a mere fraction only are found in attendance upon public ordinances ; it is believed that several hundreds of children are unbaptlzed, and that a considerable number of persons are living to- gether as husband and wife who have never been united together in marriage.' ' Sabbath desecration prevails in > to a lamentable extent. Let the hangers-on, and the hundreds of foot travellers on the various roads in the immediate neighbourhood, and the numberless groups loitering by the side of "the highways and the hedges," testify to this mournful fact.' ' Within the town and parish there are thirty- tme licensed spirit-shops — no fewer than twefitt/ of these being in the line of one street. Upon intoxicating liquors alone there is consumed, it is believed, no less a sum every year than £10,000. ' Exempt from the evils to which public worhs generally expose any neighbourhood where they exist, it might have been presumed that the community should possess a superiority, from this circumstance, as regards their moral condition. But this superiority, it is to be feared, is less real than apparent.' 'Profane swearing, like that of Sabbath * How many ragged schools ought there to be ? we should say, and on what system of communication ? The latter is a primary question, for on this depends their success or ultimate failure. H 114 STATISTICS. [sect, n. profanation, is one which is not only common among adults, but to a melancholy extent, also, among the juvenile portion of the population. Are these, indeed, the small towns and country parishes, of which at least one hundred might be named, which are equally mnhm or sinking, and which annually add a portion of their inhabitants to the already sunken masses of our large towns ? Do such exist in Scotland, ' the land of Bibles ? ' (Bibles, however, are only useful when people are trained to understand and obey their dictates.) Does our parochial system actually secure the ' godly upbringing of the young ? ' Some English friends may say, Well: Scotland, after all, is worse than England. Not so — we possess facts, many of which are of too revolting a character to appear in print, and which show that low as Scotland is, England is lower still. Were the same statistical pains taken to ascertain facts in England as have been done in some parts of this country, England and Scotland could scarcely fail to be roused from their lethargy. These facts, however, only convince us the more that it is not mere Bibles we want, nor mere pulpit preaching, infinitely important as both are ; but it is also the direct application of the truths of Scripture in schools, by Christian and well-trained masters, and conveyed in a natural, simple, and prayerful manner to the understandings, and con- sciences, and practical doings of the young, both in town and country, that we require. In other words, Moral Training, as a Christian nursing element for the church, the family, and the public and social intercourse of life. England. — We may now glance at two or three facts respecting England, in an educational point of view, which, throughout its parishes has, upon the whole, a more thoroughly rote system, and less intellectual than in Scotland. The moral statistics which may be gathered from the reports of Her Majesty's inspectors, and other Grovernment officials, are in many cases of too degraded a character to appear here, and therefore we forbear. SECT. II.] EDUCATIONAL AND MORAL. 115 Low as Scotland is, particularly in her towns, without attempting an analysis of tbe comparative condition of the two portitHis of this island, either intellectually or morally, we must confess that Scotland has much to learn from England in a physical point of -view, particularly as to home and fireside comforts. The English labourers, may, on thee other hand, learn something from the Scotch, both intellec- tually and morally. On both sides, however, national improve- ments may be accomplished by suitable school training. EXAMINATION UESSON ELI AND HIS TWO SONS. An Intellectual Waste. A few years ago, I vigited a school in one of the large towns of England, taught on the monitorial plan, and was introduced to the master by one of the directors, who stated that he was a very superior teacher, and had his boys, to the number of at least 350, in good order. I found the school, as stated, in excellent order; all busy at spelling lessons, or reading the Scriptures. On reaching the highest class, in company with the master and director, I asked the former if he ever questioned hia pupils on what they read. He answered, ' No, Sir ; I have no time for that ; but you may if you please.' I answered, that except when personally known to the teacher, I never questioned children in any school. 'By all means, do so now, if you please; but them thick-headed boys cannot understand a word, I am sure.' Being again asked to put a few questions, I proceeded : ' Boys, show me where you are reading ;' and to do them justice, they read fluently. The sub- ject was the story of Eli and his two sons. I caused the whole of them again to read the first verse — 'And Ell had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.' 'Now, children, close your books,'— (presuming it impos.* sible that any error could be committed in such a plain narrative, I proceeded :) ' Well, who was Eli ?' No amwer. This question appeared too high, requiring an exercise of thought, and a knowledge not to be' found in the verse read. I therefore descended in the scale, and pro- ceeded: 'Tell me how many sons Eli had?' 'Ugh?' 'Had Eli any sons ?' ' Sir ?' ' Open your books, if you please, and read again.' Three or four read in succession, ' And Eli had two soons, Hophni and Phinehas.' ' Now answer me, boys— How many sons had Eli ?' 'Soor?' 'Who do you think Eli was ? Had Eli any sons ?' ' Ugh ?' ' Was he a man, do you think, or a bird, or a beast ? Who do you think Eli was, children ? ' ' Soor ?' (Sir). ' Look at me, boys, and answer me — If Eli had two sons, do you think his two sons had a father?' 'Soor?' ' Think, if you please —Had Eli any sons ?' No answer. ' Well, since you cannot tell me 116 STATISTICS. [sect. ir. how many sons Ell had, how many daughters had he, think you?' 'Three, Sir.'* 'Where do you find that, boys?— lool£ at your Bibles. Who told you that Eli had three daughters ?' ' Ugh ?' The director turned upon his heels, and the master said, ' Now, Sir, d!Mt I tell you tliem fellows could not understand a word f .'/.' This I term Scriptural read- ing — those who choose may term it Scriptural education. We admit the principle, that no school or system ought to be judged of by a single exhibition, or after a transient inspection ; but here there can be no mistake ; for if the highest class of a school, consisting of a dozen boys of ten to twelTe years of age, who had read the Scriptures daily, could make such an appearance, what are we to conclude, but that, in so far as their intellectual or moral culture was concerned, it mattered not whether the Scriptures they read had been printed in Hebrew or in their mother tongue ? I thought this at the time an extreme case, but after- wards met with one or two similar results in other schools. I still proceeded, however, piercing the tough unpnlrerized clod of their understanding, till, at the expiration of fifteen minutes, they were made to perceive that Eli was a man — that this man had two sons — and that the names of these two sons were Hophni and Phinehas. That the fault was not in the children, but in the system, was ren- dered apparent from the fact, that on the same day I ylsited another school in the immediate neighbourhood of the same town, having the same sort of children, 140 in number (boys and girls), but taught on the Training System, in which was exhibited a minute acquaintance with Scripture histoiy and doctrine, and an enlarged and minute knowledge of natural science, which I heard conducted on several important points during my two visits ; moreover, their style of reading and writ- ing, etc., was quite equal to that of the other school I had visited. The whole was conducted by a first and second trained master from this Institution.! The Eotative System in EEPEATrtro Lessons. — Imperfect as mere verbal answering is, when every child knows all the answers in the lessons, and can repeat them, it is still more imperfect when the child only commits his own particular one to memory, which formerly was and still is too common in school. Most ludicrous scenes have taken place occasionally during public examinations, when a child happened to absent himself, and thus, by withdrawing a link of the chain, broke its continuity. An alert examiner, however, in most cases, can heal the breach, by a rapid movement to the next question in the order. A case lately occurred in one of the borough towns in England, which illustrates the rotation system. The public examiuator, among other * The three names previously so often repeated, viz., Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas, seem to have shed one ray of light upon their intellects, and brought out in answer the term tliree. t See page S3. — Proposed delivering of Jive lectures. SECT. 11.] EDUCATIONAL AND MORAL. 117 written questions which he was to ask, put this one, ' Who made the world?' The child answered, ^ Noah, Sir.' The examinator said, 'I heg your pardon, children, I am wrong ; that child is not here (meaning the child who was to answer the question); I ought to have asked, "Who made the ark?"' On A Single Word frequently ebsts the Whole Mbauino of a Pas- SAGB.— At an entertainment lately given to a large hody of children, hy the teachers of a very large school in England, a friend of ours was requested to read out the words of the blessing they were to sing pre- viously to their enjoying the feast : ' Be present at our table, Lord; Be here and everywhere adored ; These creatures bless, and grant tbat we May live in Paradise with Thee.' This had been repeated and sung perhaps a hundred times before by the same children at different times. Our friend ventured to ask what the children meant 6^ creatures (it being evident that on this hinges the whole meaning of the verse). They had no idea whatever that crealwea meant the beef and plum-pudding of which- they were about to partake. But that a, dog, or a cow, or a pig, was a creature, they easily comprehended ; and it took twenty minutes at least to bring out this clearly to their minds by a variety of illustrations which it would be too tedious to mention. Had these children previously re- ceived a dozen or twenty training lessons, on any subject whatever, two minutes would have been sufficient to have elucidated such a point, for they were children who had been largely instructed in Scripture, although not trained. In a properly-conducted training school, chil- dren will be found ignorant of a vast variety of words which they have read even in school ; but the difference is this, that being accustomed to analyze words and sentences, the trainer can touch some chord which instantly suggests the idea to their mind. This fact, however, proves the paramount importance of their not repeating or singing any pas- sage in prose or verse, before they have been trained to understand its general and particular meaning— in fact, ' to sing with the understand- ing.' Each Repeating His Own Verse in the Class. — In one of the model schools of England, during a public examination, the creed was being repeated — the boy at the top of the class commenced, ' I believe in God the Father ;' the next boy said, ' God the Holy Ghost.' The examina- tor checked him, and said, 'Tou are wrong, my boy;' to which the boy replied, ' Please, Sir, the boy who believes in God the Son, is not here ; I believes in the Holy Ghost.' We mention this to show the utter absurdity of such a practice as, previous, to an examination, each pupil 118 STATISTICS. [sect. II. learning simply his own particular portion of any lesson that is to be repeated. Eepbatino by Sookd. — A friend of ours was taught to repeat the twenty-third Psalm by rote. The fourth line had been committed thus, ' The quayt-wait waters by,' the sound wait instead of let filling up the requisite number of syllables, and years elapsed before he understood that 'quayt-waiC meant guiet, or could get rid of the sound. We might state twenty ludicrous mistakes j such as, ' Whose son was Moses ?' One boy answered, and none of the others could correct him, ' The son of his daughter, Sir.' As a question by itself, it was not perhaps very easily answered, but as the sound of the answer, the son of his daughter, strongly resembled the one wanted, viz., the son of PharaoKa daughter, it was of course given. Memory of Woeds without PicrnKiNo Out — A School Conducted OK WHAT IS TERMED THE IMPROVED MODERN SySTBM. — AfCW mOUthS agO I visited a National School in one of the towns in England with and at the desire of one of its directors — a school under high patronage, and the superintendence of a decidedly Christian clergyman, who takes a deep interest in the young of his flock. The master appeared smart and intelligent. The physical order of the school was good. The chil- dren read well, and answered some questions put by the teacher with perfect correctness. To one of these questions the answer was, ' There is none righteous ; no, not one.' I did not discover that this was ac- quired by rote, and the pupils being apparently more than usually in- tellectual, I ventured to put a question or two, in order to ascertain if they really understood the meaning of what they had said. Our space does not permit us to give the process of training which engaged the attention of the children fifteen minutes ; suflice it to say, the following among other questions were put : — ^You say, children, 'There is none righteous; (the children filled in the ellipsis) no, no* one.' Do any of you ever commit sin, or feel inclined to commit sin ? No, Sir. Do you ever do anything wrong ? No. Or feel inclined to do what you know is wrong? No, Sir. Have you never felt, when going to church or school on a Sunday, that you would rather have a walk or a little play ? No, Sir, they answered in one voice. Tou never feel inclined to do anything that is wrong? No. Did any of you ever do a thing that your father or your mother wished, or bade you not to do ? No, Sir- most firmly. And yet you say there is none . . . ' righteous ; no, not one.'' Our friend, the director, at my request, put several questions on the same point, and elicited similar answers. I then introduced one or two familiar illustrations, which we cannot repeat here, conducted on ih^ picturing out principle, or as a training lesson, which gradually induced them to confess that they were both inclined to disobey their parents, and actually did so sometimes— that they sometimes felt the force of SECT. 11.] EDUCATIONAL AND MOEAL. 119 oovetousness, and that disobedience to parents and covetonsness were sins— breaclies of the fifth and tenth commandments, which they fre- quently repeated in chnrch and in school. The teacher then exclaimed, ' Certainly the children will understand that passage now.' From the high character of this school, I felt indeed greatly surprised and disap- pointed. A few weeks afterwards I read in one of the public journals a flaming account of the public annual examinatioii pf this school, before all the great folks in the neighbourhood, as being one of the highest order, Christianly and intellectually — in fact, ' a model for all England.' And considering the physical order, distinct reading, and the correct method of repeating the answers committed to memory, coupled with the very respectable appearance of the master, I am not surprised that it was supposed the children were receiving a substantial education. We had here the shell without the substance — ^the sound and semblance of education without the reality.* * In Church of England schools, like the present, it would be found of great benefit were the young to teceive, once a^week, in addition to the daily Bible lesson, a training one on t)iie meaning of the Prayers a.nd Liturgy. This would enable the children now, and through life, to be . intelligent worshippers, and to read ^nd respond, and pr^y and sing with the understanding, as well as with the verbal memory. The chil- dren, understanding what is going forward, would of course be more quiet and less troublesome in church to their superintendents and teachers. We know one or two English gentlemen who are pursuing this course vrit\^ their Sunday scbool cbild^ren. SECTION 11. CHAPTER IX. FACTORY STATISTICS — EDUCATIONAL. Factory Children Examination. — Quantity, not quality, is the prevailing desire of the public mind. All is set down in tables, from which we know no proper results can be drawn, and simply because the proper means are not taken to ascer- tain the facts. A parish officer, it may be, goes round a district or parish, and inquires how many in each family can read, write, and cast accounts, how many are in school, etc., and he notes down, conscientiously enough, the facts, no doubt, just as he receives them. "We have frequently had occasion to follow such investigations for school purposes, and having put the capability of reading to the proof, have generally reduced the number to less than one-half, and the power of understanding to a mere fraction. In fact, in general, they neither had knowledge, nor had their education been such as to enable them to acquire it for themselves. We read in public documents of 10,000 children being taught to read the Scriptures in a given district, and 1700 in another, and 153,542 in Scriptural schools in a third. We hear of Bible schools and Scriptural education as the" glory of our country. But let a minute examination be made, and, excepting in the case of those who have been blessed with enlightened pious teaching in a Sabbath school, what does all this stir amount to ? Comparatively nothing — a mere decep- tion on the public, and a hushing to sleep of the energies of SECT, n.] FACTOEY STATISTICS. 121 philanthropists and Christian men, who, bnt for this cry for quantity instead of quality, might have brought their energies and sacrifices and charities long ere this to bear most favour- ably on the reduction of crime, and the Christian and moral and physical elevation of the whole community. We might furnish our readers with a hundred proofs, but we select one survey, which was conducted on what may be considered the proper principle of ascertaining the real truth, and which presents a picture, deep and melancholy it is true, yet a fair, and perhaps a favourable specimen of the intellectual and Christian attainments of the working classes between the ages of 13 and 21 years. During the last thirty to forty years it has oftentimes fallen to our lot to make surveys of the poor and working classes of this city, sometimes of large, and at other times of small contiguous districts, which presented, in many instances, pic- tures of the deepest ignorance, and in some cases, depravity. Surveys of factory workers (who of course were drawn not from any particular district or locality, but from the general population) were made, in the years 1839, 1845, and 1852, with 'the view of ascertaining the real state of education of those employed in public works in this city. The three silrveys presented similar results. We present the middle survey of four factories, the examination of which, like the other two, was conducted upon a principle which could not fail to arrive at a knowledge of the real state of education and intellectual culture, and on the facts of which the utmost reliance may be placed. The four factories are situated in various parts of the city and its suburbs, and in directions north, south, east and west of the Cross. They were selected from others, simply because the proprietors were known to take an interest in their work people, and were disposed to ascertain their real condition, both as to their capability of reading and their aitiount of knowledge. Por the sake of saving space, we have concen- trated the results of the four examinations into one schedule. 122 NECESSITY FOR MOBAI. TRAINING SCHOOLS. [SECT. n. Ult ;« CD » *- ► +» 3 « « g> O •i'^llls ^ si jS » w .Sea _.^«w g „ .B oS § as jgl ^|~ -sflg^ o .-aw- -S^gS- S = i£g|-ssis!i|i is;? rt o ft ^ w 2£ fl?" SOI /^^ H C P g ^ „ SECT. II.J PACTOET STATISTICS. 123 This examination was conducted each evening by the Rector and Masters of the Normal Seminary, along with the Overseer of each Factory, 24 persons in all, making twelve parties of two each. Each young person between the age of thirteen and twenty-one years was required, apart from the rest, to read two or three verses of Scripture narrative, and then was examined by a few questions as to their general knowledge, in the plainest, most varied, and simple manner possible. They were not from the lowest or sunken masses of the population, and we apprehend these reports present a fair sample of the state of education among a Iwge proportion of the working classes in the populous towns of the United Ijngdom. Out of 224, or one-third of the whole number, trho could read pretty well, on examination not more than 30 understood the plain meaning of the words they had read ; so that, for all the purposes of improvement, their reading could be of little service to ikem. In an ordinary statistical account of the extent of education, taken by a parish ofdcer, or without examination, three-fourths of the whole number, at the least, would have been put down as educated; *hereas, in actual fact, there was only a fractional part. By these reports, out of 698 yonng men and women who were drawn from all parts of the city and suburbs, 126 never heard of the name of Jesus, but from the mouth of profane swearers ; and of those who had heard of his name, very many were found entirely ignorant of his dignity, or character, or work. The Roman Catholic portion of these young people who were examined, very readHy answered that Jesus is the second person of the blessed Trinity; but when questioned as to their knowledge of some of the Patriarchs, or Prophets, or Apostles, answers were given such as the following : — Sir, we don't know anything cibout these gmtlemm. This is a sad picture of the state of society in Glasgow, 124 NECESSITY FOE MORAL THAINING SCHOOLS. [SEOT. n. with its Churches, Schools, Parochial and City Missionaries, and a greater variety of philanthropic institutions for the improyement of the people than is to be found perhaps in any city of the United Kingdom, and proves that the Chris- tian patriotism exhibited in benevolent efforts, parochial or private, has not yet applied those means by which the evil may be cured. We are satisfied, after the most minute investigation, that nothing essential can be done for the workers of factories after the period when they engage in work. Let legislators and philanthropists look to this. All, or nearly all, must be done for them before thirteen years of age, which is the period at which children may work ten hours a-day. "Under thir- teen years of age the whole population ought to be at school, forming correct intellectual, physical, religious, and moral habits, and establishing their health and strength by proper means, and on a firm basis. For factory children above thirteen years of age, who can- not read, and who are fully employed the whole day, evening classes are proposed. These, we conceive, must ever prove abortive. What progress in knowledge or improvement in moral habits are we to expect from teaching young persons, between eight and ten in the evening, who have stood on their feet for ten or eleven hours previously in a heated factory — worn out by fatigue, and the moment they are seated half asleep? What but listlessness and hatred of learning? What moral improvement, in particular, can be expected from boys and girls of from thirteen to perhaps eighteei; or twenty years of age, meeting on their way home at night without any superintendence whatever, or without in early youth having received the advantages we propose of moral school training? The method proposed in the Factory Bill of employing children by relays, and giving the children two hours' instruc- tion per day, has not succeeded, and never can succeed, in large towns, where a large proportion of the workers reside at a distance. It does not enable factory proprietors to give SECT. II ] FACTOEY STATISTICS. 125 snch children anything like good school instruction, and can- not possibly afford moral training. A couple of hoiu-s' teach- ing per day received by children running from a heated factory to a cold school-room is a sorry substitute for real education. Factory Sabbath Schools.— Whatever maybe accom- plished with Factory Workers in country villages, where they live contiguous to the works, and where the eye and influence of the proprietors are upon them, we are quite sure, from experience, that in large towns, and from the distances at which many of the workers reside, insurmountable barriers are presented to the adoption of any efficient means of educa- tion-J-religious, intellectual, or moral, during week days. For some years I hired a missionary to address those em- ployed in the Works in which I am interested, on one evening of the week, and invited all to attend. But gradually, not- withstanding the popularity of the preacher, the numbers gradually dwindled down to 20 or 30 pious men and women, who stood least in need of instruction. A good-sized library was provided for those who could read, consisting of historical, scientific, and religious publications. A week evening school was also established (without fees being charged) for those who could not read, the teacher confining his attention exclusively to an English education, with a short Bible training lesson. This, however, did not suit the lofty ideas of these ignorant boys. What they wanted was not, in the iirst in- stance, to learn to read, but at once to acquire the arts of writing and arithmetic, that they might get on to be foremen, or clerks in counting-houses. They rebelled against the master, did not attend regularly, and eventually this also failed. Besides, as an evening class, it would not have been prudent to have had both sexes in one school. I felt myself shut up to the conclusion that little could be done for the old of 1100 workers, and that all efficient education and training for the young must be accomplished, not by factory proprie- tors, but by parents or philanthropic institutions, previous to the age at which they may be employed in public works. 126 FACTOET SABBATH SCHOOLS. [sECT. H. Onr only course of operation now appeared to be religious instruction on Sabbaths, and conducted upon the Training System, whereby me properly trained teacher can easily instruct 40, 60, or 80 young persons, whether they can or cannot read. Such a class, then, has been established, with great success, in a large hall in the neighbourhood of the works. About 70 boys and girls, of the ages of 13 to 18 years, are in regular atten- dance, and the number is on the increase ; and it is pleasing to state that the trainer is quite delighted with the atten- tion and regularity of this class. From such schools may we not hope for much spiritual improvement under the charge of zealous and Christian masters ? At this advanced period of youth it is exceedingly difficult to secure an attendance in ordinary Sabbath schools ; we should, therefore, for this and the other reasons already stated, humbly yet strongly recom- mend to all factory proprietors in towns the estabhshment of a Sabbath school in connection with their works. The great and most important point towards its accomplishment and success, would be the providing a regularly prepared master to conduct the system of Bible training. We urge this the more, as when the hall, or place of meeting, and the one trainer are provided, proprietors will not only have their un- educated workers religiously instructed, but they will be saved the irksome task of providing, as for ordinary Sabbath schools, several teachers to do the work of what is as easily and well done, by one trainer. SECTION II. CHAPTER X, MOiftAL AND INTBLLECtUAI, STATISTICS Or GENEEAL SOCIETT. Domestic! Servants. The middle and wealthy classes, who so generously subseribe towards the support of schools, and rejoice in the Christian and moral, and of course the social improvement of the poor and working classes, are personally not uninterested in the moral condition of those in humble Ufe ; for, from this class, their domestic servants, nurses, etc., are drawn, who have a mightier influence on the morals of their young children than is generally imagined. Servants imperfectly, or rather im- properly trained in early life — ignorant — oftentimes secretly vicious, or deceitful — servants taken from the very ranks of life, the evil condition of which We have been attempting to expose, are not fit substitutes for parents in training -their children during any portion of the day. Selfishness, there- fore, even were generosity absent, ought to stimulate many who have the time and the means, to promote moral training for this class of the community. We might give many examples of the shocking training to which children are subjected by servants who themselves have been imprdperly brought up, but shall simply state one or two which have fallen under our notice : — 1. A nursery-maid, in charge of a child of ahout six or seven years of age, was walking along one of the streets of this city, after a heavy shower of rain, and about the middle of the street-Crossing met a female acquintance, with whom she entered into conversation. My informant, a lady, happened to he standing on the side pavement with a friend, and ohserved all that passed. A carriage came up, and had 128 MOEAL STATISTICS — DOMESTIC SERVANTS. [sECT. II. nearly ran oyer the child, before the maid discovered the danger. She Instantly pulled the child down by the arm ; and, to avoid the danger, dragged her along, silken pelisse and all, through the mud, till the side pavement was reached, and then shaking her fist iu the terrified child's face, said, ' Now, Miss, you must tell your mamma that you fell and dirtied your pelisse ; for if you tell how it happened, I'll knock your brains out, you little mtty.' The child had but one alternative, viz., to save herself a beating by telling a lie, or to tell the truth, and get a beating from the nurse. Here are moral superintendence and moral training with a vengeance! "Was there no need here for a moral training school for this child? Is there, no need of schools for the moral training of servants, who have such influence in forming the manners and principles of the children of the wealthy in early life ? The following also shows the bad training to which chil- dren are sometimes subjected by servants : — 2. A lady of my acquaintance says, that while she was watchful of her children's best interests, and always endeavoured to secure their confidence, for some time, those of about four to seven or eight years of age seemed to look suspiciously upon her when asked any questions respecting the roads they walked on, or places they called at with the nurse, when out with her, professedly to take an airing. One day this lady asked her children if they had had a nice walk with nurse ? The children looked at one another — no answer. My dears, tell me where you walked? StUl no answer. Children, their mother rejoined, are yon afraid to tell me where you have been ? Has nurse told you not to tell where you were ? The children looked at the door, as if afraid the nurse might enter, and then at each other— 6jrf no answer. Now, chil- dren, the mother said, if nurse has charged you not to tell, allow me to say, I am your best friend, and if she has threatened to beat you, you have nothing to fear; I shall protect you, and she shall not be permit- ted to touch you. Tell me how matters stand ; for if it be as I suspect, she shall not remain in the house longer than till to-morrow morning. Did nurse, instead of taking a walk with you, go into a house ? Yes, timidly, was the answer. This led to the opening up of an amount of deceit and lying, hardly to be credited, and disclosed the bondage under which the little ones were laid by one in whom her mistress had perfect confidence. In a great variety of ways the nurse had threatened the children, and in such language as the following : — You little sluts, if you tell your mother where you were, or what I have done, or that I have said this to you, / shall do for you; I shall ekake you to pieces. The lady called up the nurse and gave her her SECT. II.] NECESSITY FOR MORAL TRAINING SCHOOLS. 129 leave. She confessed, after much conversation, and some threats many lies she had told about articles she had used and destroyed— places to which she had stealthily taken the children — parties olF her own friends she had had in the nursery, when her mistress was out visiting In the evenings ; and that on these occasions many pieces of the silver plate had been used, and had been injured, the causes of which had not been before discovered. In fact, she found her children were being trained to deceit and lying, to a fearful extent, and to a want of confidence in their parents. The lady is a first-rate family trainer when with her children ; and the conclusion is, that while the nurse may have been religiously instructed, she unquestionably had not lem morally trained. She would not steal money, it is true, but she could steal the use of her mistress's silver plate — she could rob the children of healthful exercise, and destroy filial confidence— she could tell a lie, and train the children" to conceal the deceit. Some persons may say this is a very trifling affair ; could not something more romantic, and of a deeper cast, have been adduced ? Wo doubt it might ; but we pre- fer to give instances of every-day occurrence, and fundamental in family training. If the foundations are sapped and destroyed, what becomes of the building? If we do not take care of the littles, the larger will not be safe. 3. How frequently do nurses say to a child, in order to make it quiet — 'If you don't do so and so, I shall send for your mother or your father,' without the slightest intention of doing so ! The child con- tinues the same course — neither parent appears— the child imbibes the feeling that deception is not wrong — the nurse loses her authority — the child is trained to fear rather than to love its parents, and the nurse seems to have no idea all the while that she has done anything wrong, or broken any of God's commands. When parents are not made the bugbear, nurses will say, looking towards the door, ' Children, if you don't behave well, I shall send the black dog to you,' or, ' There's the black dog coming.' Let us all remember that children believe every- thing they are told, until they find out, by experience, that they are deceived. Our Saviour says, ' Except ye become as little children,' etc, 4. Why do servants oftentimes see a fellow-servant purloin an article, without informing his or her mistress? Why so careless about the time of, their employers ? Why so careful of their own clothes, and frequently so regardless of those belonging to their master or mistress? Why so regardless of truth, as that, when an article is broken, ' Mr Nobody,' always does it ; and why so few exceptions to this rule ? Who has not known religiously instructed servants, and excellent in other respects, guilty of such things ? These are only a sample of the direct evils to which families and children in partiorflar are subjected from the 130 MORAL STATISTICS — DOMESTIC SERVANTS. [SECT. II. untrained character of domestic servants, but more particu- larly those to which children are exposed from nursery maids. Children under their charge are occasionally taken from the nursery into the kitchen among the other servants, and when there who can tell the evils that result from the pilfering con- duct they witness, and the vulgar, loose ' slang ' and deceitful conversation which they too eagerly listen to in that, place ? Many of the children of poor mothers therefore, are under better training than those of the wealthy under such a class of servants. If the children of the upper classes are to be properly trained, the common nursery maid must be displaced for the real nursery governess — not nursery governesses as at present, who are generaUy young ladies of inferior intellect or educa- tion, who have failed in acquiring what are termed the higher branches, so as to fit them for being firdsUng governesses ; but well taught and morally trained respectable tradesmen or mechanics' daughters. Of course, they must be paid con- siderably higher wages, and permitted to sit occasionally a short time with their mistress, even were there no other reason than this, that their influence with the young children would in consequence be greatly increased. Such nursery governesses should not merely be capable of teaching Enghsh reading and the meaning of words, but the qualities and uses of the various objects around them, in-doors and out-of- doors, in an intelligent manner. More particularly, their minds and manners, and religious and moral habits, would require to have been previously cultivated in a moral training schooL The training of such a class of servants is an important desideratum in society. At present the 'jump ' is made from the low paid nursery maid of uncultivated mind and habits, to the high paid governess who can teach what are termed the higher branches of music, drawing, geography, and the lan- guages. Moral School Training — The Necessity. — Few per- SECT. II.] NECESSITY FOE MORAL TRAINING SCHOOLS. 131 sons will demy that moral training ought to be pursued in the family; but many reject the idea of its being necessary in school, beyond the mere teaching to read the Scriptures, or giviag religious instruction. Few hstve made up their mind^, that a school, conducted' on proper' principles, is the place where religious instruction can be most thoroughly and easily communicated; and fewer still clearly perceive the distinction between religious instruction and moral training. Sieligious instruction, in Sabbath and week-jlay schools, of late yuars, has' been tfermed maral traking. It no doubt forms a part of it ; but it is not the thing itself. Knowing is not equivalent to doing. : ' He that doeth my will shall know,' saith the Scripture. I am no more under training, by being toM and shown how to make a watch, or hem a frill, or paint a landscape, than I am under moral training by the truths of Scripture being presented to my mind, coupled with the ex- ample of the master, provided I am not placed in circum- stances to practise them; — I am only under training when I am caused both to understand and to do the thing specified. The practical application of this principle is the most impor- tant that can occupy the attention of the Christian philanthro- pist^ more especially in reference to the dense and sunken masses of our town population, — which class, if they are to be morally and intellectually elevated, and to receive Christian family training, in a future generation, must be chiefly indebted for it now to the instrumentality of the school in early life. We shall state a few practical errors in society, illustrative of the necessity of something additional to religious instruction being established, and we shall do so without much regard to any particular order. ' Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,' is a command in Scripture ; but it is not generally felt to be equally binding with the one, ' Thou shalt not steal.' Hpw little regard is sometimes paid to truth and honesty in the disposal of goods ! 132 MORAL STATISTICS OF GENERAL SOCIETY. [sECT. II. 5. A shop lad will assert that tbe article he offers is the very hest made, when he knows it is not; when by a little trouble to himself, and prudent management, he might quickly gain his object of a sale, avoid deception, and adhere strictly to truth. In a moral training school, during the Bible gallery lessons, or the review of the children's play-ground conduct, frequent opportunities occur of exercising their minds upon such subjects, and thus moulding their conscience and habits. 6. " Unjust weights are an abomination to the Lord," says the Scrip- ture; and yet how frequently do retailers, even with correct weights, by a ' sleight of hand,' or a ' dash ' of the article into the scale, give little more than 3J ounces of tea, for example, to a poor woman, who is charged for four ounces — adding oppression to robbery and deceit ? I know one lad who left a good situation, after a few weeks' trial, because his conscience did not permit him to practise these too common tricks. 7. 'The buyer says. It is nought, it is nought.' Compare the manner and tone of voice which most men exhibit when they buy or sell — when they pay an account, and when they receive one. Why so? It is the exercise of an improper and unchristian feeling. Why not be as polite and courteous when we pay as when we receive ? Early training would do much to remedy this evil. 8. A highly respectable silk mercer, of decidedly Christian character, told me that a lady came into his shop to purchase the very best black satin he had, for a gown. He showed the lady several pieces, but she said none were rich enough — 'Have you nothing richer?' she inquired. ' Let me see !' he returned for answer ; and taking the best piece he had shown her (for he had no better quality on hand), and placing it dex- terously under the top of the counter, he carried it to the other side of the shop, where the other portion of the stock of satins lay, and, after ' fumbling ' through the pieces, brought back the same one he had taken there, and said, ' Oh, madam, look at this piece ! ' How much. Sir ? — Is 6d per yard was added to the former named price, when she imme- diately exclaimed, ' Now, Sir, that will do, — why did you not show me this piece at the first ? ' No Answer. But she continued — ' Is this the veiy best quality that is made?' The draper knowing that, although a good one, it was not the very best, lifte-d up one leg, and standing upon the other, said ' As certain, madam, as I stand upon my two legs, it is the very best that is made!' The purchase was immediately made, and settled for. How many sins did this Christian man commit in this transaction ? is the question. He felt as if he had done nothing wrong ; and related the story to me to show his dexterity, and the silliness of the lady. Highly esteeming the man, I attempted to conduct a train- ing lesson with him, on the various points of the transaction, all of which might have been analyzed, and the lessons drawn, by children SECT n.J NECESSITY FOR MORAL TRAINING SCHOOLS, 133 accustomed to be trained, in ten minutes ; but it took thrice that time before we came to anything lilse a satisfactory conclusion. At last he exclaimed, 'Now, I see.' 9. Facts drawn from various businesses and occupations of a similar kind, might be enumerated without end. Not ' doing to others as we wish to be done by,' may be seen even in private life, by one person engrossing the conversation of a party — speaking" harshly, or being too inquisitorial — taking the place which another is entitled to occapy — crushing into a meeting,' even a Christian one, and, by strength of body, pushing one's self forward to the exclusion of another person, who may have been there before us : we taking a seat, and they obliged to stand, —while we proceed upon the principle ' might is right,' and sit in per- fect composure and satisfaction, after having broken God's law for want of moral perception — all the while, however, listening attentively, and assenting to the religious sentiments expressed by the various speakers. Is there no need for moral training here ? 10. Let a person build a house, or repair one, and take an estimate from tradesmen to the extent of i;lOOO, and let another get the same work done by equally Christian men, or the same men, by day's wages, and the increased cost of the latter will show the necessity for moral training. The man who estimates to finish the job for £1000 of course gets no more, but the latter will produce an account of £1300, or perhaps £1500 for the same work. Who has not seen even pro- fessedly Chnstian men so act in real life ? Only observe the rapid movements of those working by estimate, and the slow, or dull, or more lifeless manner of the labourer on day's wages. 11. A gentleman proprietor having his house repaired by day's wages, inquired of a boy employed by the master mason, ' When will your master be done with this work?' 'Don't know, Sir,' was the reply; 'but 1 s'pose when master gets another job.' In what an excellent training school was this boy being brought up ! 12. Evil-speaking is denounced in Scripture ; and yet how wofully common, even among true Christians ! It would not be so common if, in the spring-time of life, every little occurrence met with its due exposure, and their consciences were enlightened on the subject. This is a vice to which whole communities, as well as individuals, are more particularly subject, — just as some towns or districts are noted for sel- fishness and covetousness, while benevolence and generosity charac- terize others. Moral training, based on Scripture, would do much to weaken the former propensities and strengthen the latter. We may speak True Words, and yet Deceive.— I may add a story which my father told me when a youth, to show 1 34 MORAL STATISTICS OF GENERAL SOCIETY. [sECT, H. that we may speak true words, and yet deceive, — ^just as by tones of voice, look, and gestures, we can make ym to mean no, and no — yes. 13. A respectable, conscientious !! woman, called Janet, occasionally brewed a little malt, upon which there was a certain amount of duty chargeable. The Excise officer was observed one day approaching her cottage, on his accustomed duty of inspection, and while she felt no aversion to ' cheat iht Government, yet she wovld not tell a lie for tlie world r Janet, therefore, hurriedly moved the kitchen chairs and table into a side room, placed part of the (smuggled) liquor in the middle of the floor in a tub, and tumbled a large washing tub over the whole, knowing by this expedient, that the Excise officer could place his books and papers nowhere else but on the said flat-bottomed tub. The officer entered the house, and placing his papers as was expected, on the only convenient spot, — he noted In his book the quantity of excise- able liquor, exactly as the honest woman had told him j and when bundling up his papers, he simply asked, ' Now, Janet, have I seen all the liquor you have on hand?' "Deed, Sir, you have it all,^it's all vnder your hand !' Under his hand, certainly, but not under his in- spection. The officer, trusting to Janet's truthfidness and honesty, left the house, and the excise was of course robbed. Although the honest woman may have been religiously instructed, it is quite clear that she had not been morally trained. A direct lie she would not tell, and theft she would not commit, according to her unenlightened principles. It might have been otherwise, however, had she in early life received a few training lessons, not merely by repeating the ten commandments, but an analysis of the command, ' Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' 14. Many good men consider It nothing wrong to cheat Government. Taxes of various kinds, local or national, may be heavy, and even grievous ; but the simple question is this, Are we bound to be subject to ' the powers that be ?' Are we to ' render unto Csesar the things tliat are Caesar's ?' Bible training lessons occasionally lead to such points in school, without the slightest allusion to politics or party, but simply the obvious lessons of Scripture. 16. We lately saw a carter driving a waggon-load of coals ; one of the wheels going into a cavity or deep rut of the street violently, dis- placed a number of the pieces of coal, which were scattered hither and SECT. 11.] NECESaiTY FOE MORAL TRAINING SCHOOLS. 135 thither on the pavement. Instantly one or two women, and three ehildreiBjiran and picked up the pieces, In evident fear that they might be stopped in seizing their pri^. The waggoner saw them picked up, but moved onVard, taking no notice whatever, and afterwards de- livered what he called a complete waggon of coals, knowing that no questions would be asked as to welight, he having received a ticket before entering the city, from the porter of the weighing-machine, stating that the waggon was a proper weight. What a variety of points there were here for training lessons !— the waggoner as an accessory to the theft, although, perhaps, be did not think so ; and the women and Children, who half thought that taking what was not their own is n6t stealing, ^especially if lying on the pavement, or not noticed, or tbe1 DISTINCTIVE FE^TUEKS, ETC. [sECT. III. slowly), in a particular manner, which cannot easily he described on paper, is to be the signal for rising up and sitting down, as perfectly as a regiment of soldiers would fire a volley. The filling up of the ellipsis by the children i.ndnces them instantly to do the thing required. This gallery arrangement is not confined to the Initiatory or Juvenile, but is carried forward with children and students of every age. i NO. II. — THE FOUR MOTIONS may be conducted by repeating 1, 2, 3, 4, as each motion is made, (the children standing upright) or by singing any suitable air, regulating the rapidity according to the tune. .1. Shoulders back by doubling the arms upwards, with the fists closed, and back of the hands pointing to the shoulder. (This of necessity squares th e shoulders.) 2. Eaise both arms perpendicularly, pointing the fingers towards the ceiling, keeping the feet in the position noticed in the previous exam- ple, viz., heeJs dose^ toes angled ovt acutely, etc., and at the same moment when they point and stretch their fingers towards the ceiling that they rise on their toes as high as possible, and stand at full stretch for one or two seconds when required. (This secures straightness of arms, spine, and limbs.) 3. Is performed by simply returning to the first position, viz.. No. 1. 4. Is simply throwing the arms perpendicularly downwards, with the palms of the hands in front— opXte a la/rancaise, or the reverse of pointing to the ceiling. (This secures that the spine must be straight and the shoulders square.) Immediately after this the hands may be permitted to hang easily and naturally at the sides until the next order be given for motion No. 1. This exercise is highly valuable, as at once favour- able to health and good order, and may be repeated several times a-day in the gallery. CHAPTER XXIII. SINGING — PHYSICAL EXEECISES. Singing may be acquired merely as a relaxtion, or an amuse- ment, or it may be used for other purposes. In a school, it- may be classified with physical exercises, from its being found to be one of the most powerful instruments for subduing and tranquillizing the feelings of a gallery of children, and estab- lishing that order whereby intellectual attention is secured during training lessons, whether secular or sacred. As the training or natural system has been applied to every branch of education which is taught in the model schools of the Normal Seminary, music, therefore, has not been overlooked. We believe this Institution was the first to introduce singing, both with and without notes, as a distinct branch, into popular and juvenile schools, and which is now becoming all but universal throughout the country. It is beyond doubt that every child can be trained to sing simultaneousb/, and howpver imper- fectly, also individually — just as he can be trained to sound the various vowels of the alphabet, which is accomplished in infancy by example and doing, in other words, training. Such being the fact, and knowing the power of popular songs in rousing to evil deeds, or to enlightened patriot- ism, why not enlist this powerful instrument in the service of God, and of everything that is virtuous and ennobling ? Why not train early to the habit f In addition to singing as a means to an end, the end being intellectual and moral training, three great objects were in view — 1st, To train the child to worship God in the family; 2dly, in the public 232 PRINCIPLES AND DISTINCTIYE FEATUEES, ETC. [sECT. HI. sanctuary ; and, 3dly, by furnishing the young with interest- ing moral songs, to displace, in their social amusements, many of at least a questionable character. These objects have been fully attained by the children attending the model schools, and every other school where our students have been located ; and not only so, but singing by and without the notes,* has proved a powerful assistance to the trainer, in conducting both the scientific, religious, and elementary lessons. What more interesting, soothing, and enlivening to the family circle than a song — solo or in parts ? Mere amusement, or the festive board, may lay claim to some of the most touching melodies : why not set some of them to those songs of Zion, which heaven in all its glory is pictured out as unceasingly enjoying ? Let the young be early imbued with a little of this taste at the fireside, in the school, in church, and in re- tirement. The moral songs which are introduced, cheer, animate, and soothe the mind ; the marching airs facilitate and regulate every movement to and from the gallery, the play-ground, and the class-room ; and the morning and evening hymns are in accordance with the Scriptural declaration, ' Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.' The sentiment of each song ought to be suited to the particular lesson, whether secular or sacred. Without vocal music, the Initiatory (or Infant) Department would be a certain failure ; and both in it and in the more advanced Departments, it proves a powerful instrument of moral culture. Singing, or music of any kind, tends to calm the feelings, and, without dissipating the mind, prepares both, for receiving those impressions which, in a perturbed or agitated state, would be impracticable. Singing has this advantage over instrumental music, that the understanding of the words * In popular elementary schools, singing must, of course, be conducted chiefly without books, the children not being able to purchase a suffi- cient number and variety ; at the same time, psalm, hymn, and moral song tunes, ought to be provided by, or for, each of the children. SECT, ni.] SIKGING PHTSICAL I^XEECISES. 233 used and the feelings accord sympathetically. School singing is as necessary to moral training as instrumental music is to military discipline. Singing at First Sight. — Why should not every child be so thoroughly grounded in the ' alphabet,' and sounds of music, as to be able to read (and express) music, at first, as he does a lesson book which he sees for the first time ? There is certainly more complexity in the one science than the other, but the principle of acquiring each is similar. A child reads and expresses a sentence, which he never saw before, at once. Why not a simple tune, under the same sort of training, although more tedious ? The influence of vocal music is not confined to the school- house, but is carried into the family, and at play is exercised in displacing some songs of an exceptionable character ; and since its introduction iuto the Juvenile and Senior Departments of this Seminary, the practice has been followed to a great extent in Juvenile schools, throughout the kingdom, even where the Training System has not been pursued. CHAPTER XXIV. SPEAKING — VOICE — ENUNCIATION. When the principle of speaking is alladed to, public speaking, or public speakers, almost instinctively occur to the mind. There are rules indeed for public speaking and speakers, but these he more immediately under the head of what is termed Elocution. What we here have chiefly in view is simply impressive speaking, not to make orators — oratory being sometimes simply a gift of nature, altogether independent of what is commonly termed Elocution, nay, sometimes opposed to its acknowledged principles. An orator, an eloquent man, and an impressive speaker, may all be combined in one person, more frequently, however, they are found separately. It is the last of these we have now in view, which every person, young and old, may attain by training ; and its acquisition is paramountly important alike to the schoolmaster and his pupils ; and in social life, to master, mistress, and servants, parents and children, indeed in almost every association in life where a distinct interchange of ideas is requisite and expected. A melodious, or even a pleasing voice, is not always attainable by any amount of practice, a certain degree of roughness may remain. For the sake of every command given, observation made, question put, and answer ex- pressed, we should desire, at the least, to have distinctness and impressiveness. We shall therefore give