^fe- ,v,^ '. V» . ^^^W^ ^^v^ J^^y^vr < C ^^■' i ^^o "^^2^ ^ M/3cellc^neoMs"T<5\mphit Vol , ai. ir ^ rf^ L DENOMINATIONAL EDUCATION; IJS NECESSITY AND ITS PRACTICABILITY ESPECIALLY AS IT REGARDS COLLEGES. AN ADDRESS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE THALIAN AND PHI-DELTA SOCIETIES OF OGLETHORPE UNIVERSITY. BT THE REV. THOMAS ^SMYTH, D. D. Ne quid falsi dicnre audeat, ne quid veri non audeat — Cicero Veritas nihil verelur, nisi abscondi. — Terence. CHARLESTON, S. C. PRINTED BY B, JENKINS, 100 HAYNE-STREET. 1846. i CORRESPONDENCE, Oglbthorpb University, November 13, 1»15. Dbar Sir,— As a Committee of the Phi-Delta Society, we respectfully solicit a copy of your very appro- priate and profound address, delivered by you before the Thalian and Phi-Delta Societies on yesterday, that; it may be published, and its very important views of Education be widely diflseminaied. Very respectfully, Thos. W. Woolpolk 1 RoBT. IVBRSON > Committee. W. H. Hall, S Rbv. Thomas Smtth, D. D. Midway, Nor. 14, 1845. Gbmtlbkbh,— Hoping that the interests of the University, and the general cause of DenominationaJ Education may be advanced by a publication of my Address, I cheerfully comply with your request, and remain, with sentiments of the highest respect, Most sincerely yours, Thomas Smyth. Messrs. Woolfolk, Iverson, & Hall. PREFACE. It is high time that the public should be made acquainted with the distinction between Denominational and Sectarian Educa- tion, two things essentially distinct, but, in the common under- standing, even of intelligent men, one and the same. To point out, however, the difference, and not merely the distinction be- tween these two things, will be one object in this address. * It is equally necessary that the public mind should be led to discriminate between denominations who cannot, or, at least, do not, teach Christianity in all its essential credenda, or things to be believed, and its agenda, or things to be performed, without indoc- trinating the minds of their pupils with all the peculiarities of their ecclesiastical and ritual system, — and those who can, and do, leave these things in their proper sphere, and imbue the minds of their pupils only with the essential spirit and principles of Christianity. On this point, also, some hints will be offered, which may give to many anew and encouraging aspect of the much 7?w5-understood system of Presbyterianism. But the entire argument will be found as applicable to other evangelical denominations, as to the one of which the author is a member. This discourse is addressed, with whatever ability the author possesses, and with whatever force the facts and arguments may wield, to the thinking minds among our people. With them the question of Education rests; their interests it involves ; and by them must it be decided. And while the author would most re- spectfully solicit the attentive consideration ol our rulers, legisla- tors and politicians, as well knowing how mighty is their influence in moulding the opinions of their constituents, yet he is also aware how irresistible are the united and intelligent opinions of the wise and prudent among the people. Let, then, the fathers and mothers of our land study and examine this matter. It will soon be forced » This confusion runs as a latent sophism through the whole of the arguments used against Denominational Education. Denominational Education, however, is used to define a Religious Education, which, to be secured, must be under denominational direction and control, though it is not designed to teach denom- inational or ecclesiastical peculiarities. See latter part of the Address. IV upon them. Already is the controversy it involves making pro- gress, and, ere long, it must become a great, if not the great national question. It may well be asked, " Do ye not understand the signs of the times ?" And we may well hear the twice re- peated instruction of the wise man, " a prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished."* For the reasons stated, and the nature of the occasion, the sub- ject is not treated on religious grounds, but only on grounds of political and general expediency and necessity. To christians, however, there are reasons in favour of the system advocated, which make it imperatively binding upon them, and demand their united energies in carrying it forward. For if a direct, efficient and distinctive religious influence can be secured in the govern- ment and instruction of any institution in no other avay, then every motive and command by which the Bible urges parents to " train up their children" from infancy to independent and mature manhood, "in the way they should go," — that is, " to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord " teaching them all things whatsoever Christ has commanded," — obligates them to pa- tronize this plan, and to give to it their prayers, co-operation and support, until it is rendered adequate to all the wants of our grow- ing republic. If these divine requisitions include all that is essen- tial to secure the greater blessing, that is the establishment of re- ligious principles, habits and character, they must also include that constant and thorough religious culture and influence which can alone lead to such a result ; and if they include the great end, even the personal and everlasting salvation of the soul, they must make necessary that continual enforcement of " line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little," by and through which God works in the hearts of men. " Sanc- tify them through thy truth, thy word is truth " And God, there- fore, in making it the duty of his Church to provide for the attain- ment of these ends, has also made it her duty to use diligently all the means by which education, like godliness, " may be profitable for the life that now is, and also for the life that is to come," and to secure, therefore, for the young, a certain and an efficient re- ligious education. And if there is any one part of education, more than another, which requires to be imbued with the restraining and sanctifying influences of the gospel, it is a college education, for then passion is strongest, temptation greatest, and restraint weakest. The author would not have felt warranted, notwithstanding his own convictions of the importance of the subject, in presenting it to the world, had it not been suggested for his discussion on this oc- casion, and had not the publication of the address been requested by many highly influential men, and also by the prefixed commu- nication, to which he felt bound to yield an assent. ♦Prov. xxii. 3, & xxvii. 12. Seethe quotations from the N. Y. Evauge* list and New Jersey society, in the Appendix. AN ADDRESS. Gentlemen of the Thalian and Phi-Delta Societies: Although I appear before 3^ou almost without note of warning or time for full preparation, I have, nevertheless, fearlessly thrown myself into the engagement, animated by the glorious nature of the subject which has been suggested for discussion, and the hope that I may be able, through you, and the lustre of this occasion, to give to it greater prominence and a more considerate and general attention. My theme is Denominational Education — its necessity and its practicability, — especially as it regards colleges: and my ob- ject will be to show that society will, and must be, educated ; that education to be a blessing, and not a curse, must be religious ; that a religious education can most effectually be imparted by institutions under the controul of some one denomination; — and that denominational colleges are both necessary and practicable, and free from any valid objection. As it regards education in general, the controversy is now nearly at an end. Its importance, its value, its paramount worth, its absolute necessity as a qualification for the duties and privileges of the present advanced condition of society, — and the indisputa- ble right which every man who is born within society and made subject to laws, has to its reception — these are truths now univer- sally admitted. These were formerly matters of grave discussion and angry dispute. These are still reprobated heresies under every system of civil or ecclesiastical despotism — where, as in Italy, and in Austria, in Turkey and in China, free-born citizens are taught, — to use the language of the Austrian catechism,* that " subjects ought to conduct themselves as faithful slaves towards their masters, whose power extends over their goods as well as their ♦Italy, Austria and the Pope, by Joseph Massini. London 1845, p. 52. 6 persons." But throughout protestant Christendom these are no longer, thank God. problematic questions to be determined by ex- periment, but demonstrated theorems, or rather admitted principles and ultimate facts, so that the man who questions or denies them is regarded as a traitor to his species and a conspirator against the dearest rights and liberties of humanity. And one thing is most certain, that whether it is or is not true that civilization is more beneficial to a community than barbarian ignorance, and that it is in a state of darkness rather than in a condition of light that erroneous views and evil practices are most likely to stalk abroad — it is no longer in the power of man to check the progress either of civilization or of knowledge. The people have now awoke to a full consciousness of their importance and their dignity, and are determined to think and speak for themselves, and to as- sert their rights against the tyranny of priestcraft on the one hand, and of lordly aristocracy on the other. Knowledge, like the angel of the apocalypse, has now clothed herself with wings, and is seen flying in the midst of heaven and proclaiming her truths to all the nations, and kindreds, and tribes, and people of the earth. Her voice is the universal press, — her carrier the illimitable power of steam ; and her messengers the winds. For good or for evil, for weal or for woe, for better or for worse, she is now the common property of all men, free and unshackled as the air we breatlie. For ourselves we rejoice that such is the fact. It is as it should be. Man isless physical, than he is intellectual, and less intellec- tual than he is spiritual. The ties that bind him to the earth are transient, — it is his relation to eternity that stamps upon him in- conceivable dignity and incalculable worth. Man's happiness or misery, therefore, consists not in what he outwardly either enjoys or wants. Nakedness, hunger and distress of every kind, have been cheerfully borne when the heart was satisfied, while pomp and wealth, and luxury, and every form of earthly grandeur have operated like the chains and fetters of a guilty felon, only to aggravate the misery of a heart which was not right, and not at rest. It is, therefore, proper that the gem of every soul should be freed from those incrustrations by which ignorance surrounds it, and that the spirit into which God has breathed the life of immor- tality should be at liberty to expand its wings ; to soar above ter- restial enjoyments ; to hold converse with nature in all her won- derful and glorious works ; and to wander in its illimitable mu- sings, through the bright regions of eternity. The father of philosophy has made it a proverbial truth that ** scientia et potentia humana in idem coincidunt, quid ignoratio caussae destituit effectum."* This truth, however, which is now simplified into the declara- tion, that "knowledge is power," like all great and fundamental truths, is only the borrowed wisdom of that celestial Organum which was " given by inspiration," — since it was theie written thou- sands of years ago, that " wisdom is profitable to direct," and that *'a wise man is strong, yea a man of knowledge increaseth strength !"t Without knowledge man is the giant chained down to the rock of an ignoble destiny ; with it he is that same Prometheus bring- ing down intellectual fire even from the skies. Without it the soul is but the golden mine unopened and unemployed ; with it, it is that golden ore coined, and circulated in streams of wealth throughout the world. Without it man is but an infant of days, a passive instrument in the hands of others, the tool of cunning, the dupe of folly, the slave of sensuality, the instrument of any and every evil ; with it he is a fi-ee agent, capable of reasoning, inde- pendent in his own judgment, and under the guiding influence of foresight and of wisdom. The mind of man is this world's true dimension, And knowledge is the measure of the mind : Smce Learning is an addition, beyond Nobility or birth. Knowledge therefore is power ; the power by which mind may accomplish its own purposes ; the organ of intellectual sense by which it observes all things ; and the soul of the intellectual body by which it carries into effect its determinations and its plans. ♦Novum Organum. Aphorism iii. in Bacon's works, vol. ix. p. 191. " Knowl- edge and human power are synonymous, since the ignorance of the cause frus- trates the effect." tSee Proverbs xxiv. 5. And would any man see of what effect it is in advancing- the power of individuals whether as kings or subjects, politicians or warriors, citizens or relatives ; whether as the contemporaries of the present, the inheritors of the past, or the precursors of the future age ; — let him read " The two Books of Francis Bacon on the Profession and advancement of learning, Divine and Human." " Felix qui potest rerum cognoscere causas, Cluique metus omnes, et inexorabile latum Subjicit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari." The glory of knowledge is, that it makes man master of him- self, of his reason, his belief, his understanding, and of his will ; and that it thus elevates man to the throne of his own heart, and gives him dominion over all the powers, faculties, passions and affections of his nature. Such is the power of knowledge over man individually, and as he who has become master of himself is mightier than he who has subdued a city, so does this power over a man's own mind and heart, enable him to exercise the same power over others, yea over their minds and understandings and wills, and by conse- quence over their bodies and their physical energies. Knowledge, therefore, is the true theatre of Orpheus, of which ancient poets sung, " where all beasts and birds assembled ; and forgetting, their several appetites, some of prey, some of game, some of quarrel, stood all sociably together listening to the airs and accords of the harp; the sound whereof no sooner ceased, or was drowned by some louder noise, but every beast returned to his own nature ; wherein is aptly described the nature and condi- tion of men, who are full of savage and unreclaimed desires of profit, of lust, of revenge ; which as long as they give ear to precepts, to laws, to religion, sweetly touched with eloquence and persuasion of books, of sermons, of harangues, so long is society and peace maintained ; but if these instruments be silent, or that sedition and tumult make them not audible, all things dissolve into anarchy and confusion." The NECESSITY of knowledge or education, and the power of knowledge, cannot therefore be controverted. But these premises being granted, a wide field is still open to inquiry, and there are many roads in Avhich those premises may guide us, and many conclusions to wliich they lead. Knowledge is not, and cannot be of one kind ; for ever since man "ate of that forbidden tree," knowledge has been characterized by evil as well as good, and its power exerted to corrupt as much as to purify. Evil thoughts, evil imaginations, evil purposes, evil seeds have now become incorpora- ted with knowledge, and while its fountain pours forth the streams of happiness and joy, it also sends forth the bitter floods of misery and destruction. And if, as the Bible asserts ; as all believers in it have ever testified ; and as the universal and uncontradicted experience of the w^orld proves ; man is now, in his understanding darkened, in his judgment perverted, in his tastes sensualized, and in his passions and propensities depraved, it must be at once per- ceived that as is man, such will be that knowledge current among men and most acceptable to them. Knowledge then is power. It makes men giants. It consti- tutes them kings and conquerors. It clothes them with irresisti- ble influence over themselves and "Others. But what then ? as is man such will be the end aimed at in the exercise of this power. Knowledge puts into his hands the club of Hercules, but his heart incites him to wield that club for the destruction, and not for the salvation, of his species. Knowledge clothes him with a coat of im- penetrable mail, but his heart leads him to employ it in resisting and warding oflf the influences of truth and righteousness, and holiness. Knowledge gives to a man the hundred eyes of Argus, the hun- dred hands of Briareus, and the wings of Mercury ; it has imparted as immense power to the intelletcual man, as mechanical engines have given to the physical man ; it is the steam-engine of the moral world, the lever of Archimedes transferred from matter to mind, and furnishes to the statesman and politician, the sceptic and the utili- tarian, the materialist and the epicurean, and the self-interested promoters of every vice, an instrument more powerful than could be wielded by any other means ; — but the evil heart of unbelief will only employ this inconceivable power in diffusing through every vein and artery of the social system, the deadly poison of depravity and vice.* ♦ See Bell's description of his own system. 10 Knowledge then is power, but that power may be wielded by the madman who scatters abroad fire and death. In short, knowledge is, in itself considered, mere power, and depends, for its influence, upon the manner in which that power is exerted. It is therefore either the hand of Midas which convert- ed every thing it touched into gold, or the head of Medusa which turned every thing upon which it looked, into fiery serpents whose bite was death. It is now, therefore, almost as generally admitted, as that knowledge is necessary to the individual and to the community, that to be truly beneficial and not fatally injurious, that know- ledge must be imbued with the spirit and power of true religion. There is a chain of moral sequences as inseparable as any of the laws of nature. Freedom is necessary to human happiness ; virtue is necessary to freedom ; knowledge is necessary to virtue ; truth is necessary to knowledge ; and the will, authority, and word of God are the only source, rule, and standard of truth. As man, therefore, is an emanation from God, so is his well-being de- rived only from Him, and the last link that binds together in peace and prosperity the families of a nation is fastened to " the throne of the eternal." There is no other foundation under heaven, or known among men, upon which the freedom, the prosperity, and the happiness of a community can rest, than the knowledge, be- lief, and practical infusion of deep religious truth. And we do af- firm, and venture to ask, whether events everywhere, and in every age, throughout the world's history, "in all manner of dialects," do not throng the memory, and with loud and emphatic protesta- tion corroborate the decision of Scripture, that " righteousness cx- alteth a nation, and that sin is a reproach and ruin to any people." A state is civilized, stable and happy, in proportion as law and right predominate over individual passion and self-will ; and hence the only true and lasting civilization consists in the in- fusion of divine truth into all the arts, habits, laws, and customs- of the social polity. This is the salt of the earth, the leaven of society ; and revealed truth, inwrought into the texture of the social constitution, this alone can preserve a state from lapsing deeper and deeper into hopeless barbarism. 11 The freedom of a commonwealth depends on the combination of two things. One is what Machiavel calls its orders, that is, the forms and customs, and the diiferent classes, assemblies, and bodies, with different powers and privileges attributed to them, into which society is divided, and by which it is governed. This ern- braces all the forms by which the framework of the constitution is distinguished, and it is, of course, necessary, in order to the en- joyment of popular liberty, that these forms shall be popular, and give opportunity for popular direction and control. There can be no security except under wise laws, voted by the best men, sanc- tioned by the love and approbation of the people ; and there can be no peace except where there is harmony between the governors and the governed ; where the government is the intelligence of the country directing it, and the people the arm of the country executing its decrees. But, let the constitutional forms of a country be as perfect as they may, there is essential to freedom, another important element, and that is, the spirit and character of the people. On the mutual conformity and harmony of these things the preser- vation of liberty depends ; but of the two the latter is unspeakably the most important, the sine qua non of abiding happiness, and permanent liberty. While this remains, the former cannot be essentially undermined, nor can they, in any case, be destroyed, except by a military conquest, which would soon be reconquered and overthrown. Let this remain, and under any of the forms of government, a people will be happy and free. But let this be lost, and under the freest of all civil constitutions, that same people will be miserable and enslaved. So that it is true, as Machiavel has well said, that when a people are corrupt, a free government can neither be maintained if they already enjoy it, nor ever established if they enjoy it not. And the history of Greece and Rome, and of all ancient kingdoms will prove, that those forms and orders of government, which are most adapted to secure and to maintain liberty while the people remain uncorrupt, and under the influ- ence of religious views which are in some good measure true and powerful ; — that on the other hand these very forms become injurious to that liberty, when the same people have become seep- 12 tical in faith and corrupt in morals. And hence, in all the ancient nations, we find that in their earliest periods they were imbued with the pure traditional remains of the patriarchal faith, of which the leading doctrines are found imbedded in their earliest and purest legal institutes.* And hence also is it true that when that faith in any nation had become corrupted by superstition and idolatry, and those morals which spring from it had sunk into selfishness, sensuality, and unprincipled ambition, — it was found impossible to govern, and preserve the peace and order of society under the original forms of a free and popular government, and that it became necessary that the constitution should be adapted to the manners of the people, and the absolute and uncontrouled poY'«r of a monarchy, a despotism or a dictatorship be substituted for the gentler polity of a republic, or of a limited monarchy. f The unvarying testimony of all experience, therefore, demonstrates the conclusion, that among a corrupt and irreligious people a free commonwealth can neither be established nor maintained. "1^ A representative government and free institutions are not, there- fore, the cause, but the effect ; the result, and not the antecedent ; the visible forms in which the already settled opinions and long cherished principles of a nation are embodied ; and the organs by which those principles are developed and carried out into action. These institutions, therefore, must as surely be wanting, or hasten to decay, where a people are steeped in moral and religious bond- age, as a healthy body must become feeble and languid when there is a diseased vitality. And on the other hand, let the spirit of a nation be imbued with the genius of pure and undefiled religion, and it will soon develope the organs and the beautiful proportions of a free, manly, and noble constitution, and as certainly preserve and perpetuate the equitable sanctions, rights, privileges, and laws which such a free constitution implies. It is in vain, therefore, that mere speculative and philosophising economists tell us that the happiness and liberty of a people de- pend on their wealth, and capital, and meansof personal comfort ♦ dee this subject fully illustrated as it regards the Romans, &c., in the Amer can Biblibal Repository for October, 1813, p. 346, «&c. tSee the same work and article, p. 348-351. {See Bolingbroke's Idea of a Patriot King in works, vol. 3. 13 and enjoyment. For what influence could these exert in subduing passion, extirpating vice, and keeping in check envy, selfishness, malice, and every other evil work ? Is it not rather apparent that the very abundance of such means of enjoyment would only over- flow the spring-head of that general corruption; luxury, and in- dulgence which must ever terminate in disorder, anarchy and ruin. But some will tell us, that the general education and enlighten- ment of the people will accomplish all that is necessary to the establishment and the perpetuity of freedom. This is the great modern panacea of philosophers and politicians, which is to heal all the diseases, and secure the perfect health, of the body politic. But has the world, I ask, by all its wisdom and education ever yet succeeded in establishing and perpetuating free institutions, or real personal liberty ? Were not Egypt, Greece and Rome civilized and enlightened beyond, perhaps, any modern kingdom ? And was not the period of their greatest enlightenment the very period of their greatest depravity, corruption, anarchy, misrule, and final enslavement to military tyrants 1 They were — and their history is in accordance with what philosophy and reason would teach us to expect. For knowledge is power, power to carry out, to exe- cute, and to gratify to the utmost excess, the desires, appetites and passions of the breast, and where these are corrupt, selfish, am- bitious and depraved, it makes these evil passions omnipotent for evil, and all the laws and institutions that might restrain them im- potent for good. Mere human and scientific knowledge, as its ad- vocates delight to tell us, is an ocean which is to overflow the world. Yes ! it is an ocean, but like that ocean it is as fearful in its tempests as it is useful in its calm ; as destruct've in its inunda- tions as it is healthful in its tides ; as overwhelming in its rocks and shoals, and eddies and whirlpools, as it is invaluable as a chan- nel for a free and unlimited trade ; — and when it is once roused into action by popular commotion, Avhen it is once upheaved into moun- tain billows by the fierce passions of an ungodly, unholy and irre- ligious populace, that neither fear God nor man, — where are the laws, the forms, the orders, or the institutions, however free and popular, that can for a moment sustain the shock of its irresistible 14 might ? The diffusion of mere scientific knowledge and educa- tion, therefore, among a people, all intelligent men are now con- strained to regard as a dangerous state of things, because it makes them powerful only for evil, if they are not so educated as to be made powerful for good.* For unless such knowledge and education are imbued with the spirit and principles of religion, their advantages to individuals and to society are not only, to a great extent, lost, but they become the fruitful sources of aggravated mischief, corruption and misrule to any community. This MUST be the case from the very nature and constitution of the human mind. For intelligence and education increase the power and ability of the mind to act out its purposes. They enlarge and strengthen the desires, while they do not enlighten, purify, or, invigorate the conscience ; they extend the thirst for grati- fication, without augmenting the means of resisting temptation ; they enable the heart, which is naturally " deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," to throw around vice a delu- sive appearance of reason, necessity, fashion and respectability; they address themselves to the proud and selfish feelings of the unrenewed heart, and in proportion to their acquisition and successful attainment, they inflate the mind with pride, haugh- tiness, contempt of others, envy and jealousy of more suc- cessful or eminent rivals for the fame and honour ot society, and with a towering ambition which sets at defiance all the counsel of prudence, all the restraints of religion, all the claims of philanthropy, and will not even have God to rule over or controul it. "As he proceeds his intellect grows in strength, and becomes rampant with confidence. It exults in detecting the weaknesses and failings of others ; it glories in its own resources ; it is filled with self-sufficiency, and swollen Avith self-conceit ; and as the very frequency with which it may have formed theories and pictures of morality and religion too often renders it insensible to the practical obligations of both, it soon acknowledges no master, pronounces its own light to be sufficient, — scorning to yield reverence even to the High and * See Archbishop Wbateley's "Dangers to the Christian Faith."— p. 78-81. r 15 Holy One; who alone is light, and truth, and life, and good- ness. Every unsanctified intellect thus becomes a tyrant ; every master-intellect a master-tyrant. The more splendid the talents, the deeper the shades that are cast on a nature already, alas, very dark, and very depraved ! The more towering the genius, the more tremendous the engine for spreading devastation through the empire of truth and order, godliness and sobriety." " Where great men are wicked, there wickedness is great." Mere intellectual education is, then, a misdirected education, and leads to ill-proportioned attainments in knowledge; to- an ill-balanced growth of the mental powers; and produces a species of monomania or partial insanity. Earth, and earthly things, form the horizon which bound the mental view. Heaven, and the things which are spiritual and divine, are excluded from its contemplation. The soul becomes " earthly, sensual, and devilish," an archangel ruined, lost, and aban- doned to the pursuits of ungodliness, to swell with its mightie powers that host who are urging war against the truth and order and holiness heaven. Such must be the effects of a mere enlargement and cultivation; of the mental powers, without a proportionate enlargement and cul- tivation of the moral and spiritual affections, as appears from an a priori examination of the mental constitution. Atid such has BEEN its influence, as is proved by the unimpeachable testimony of all past experience during the ages that are gone by. So that you have only to point me to any individual like Alexander, Csesar, Augustus, Nero, or in modern times a Hildebrand, a Napoleon, a Ceesar Borgia, a Voltaire, a Mirabeau, a Rousseau, a Robespierre, a Byron, a Burns, a Shelly, or any one of a host of others, who were pre-eminent in mere intellectual power, and I will point you to one who has proved himself, as it regards the entire humanity of his being, a moral monster, deformed and defective, and therefore either a misanthrope, or- a murderer and polluter of his species, and as surely misera- ble, unhappy, and ill at ease in his own heart, as he has be- come the source of such misery to others. Nor do I know s more affecting lesson in the whole history of the world tha©:. 16 the confessions, self-upbraidings, and evident incapacity to fulfil the duties and destinies of life, either to their own comfort or the good of society, of such lofty spirits as Byron, Burns and Rousseau. Nor is this experience of past ages belied, but on the con- trary most abundantly confirmed, by the events and esoerience of our own age. France was never as distinguished for her learning and intellectual developement as when her Encyclo- pedists, Economists, lUumiaati, poets, and orators cast from them the word and the truth of God ; undertook to reform, remodel, and regenerate society by the wisdom of man ; and precipitated France, and a great part of Europe, into that moral chaos, where atheism, anarchy, fear, terror, and wild despair, in company with teachery, blood, and murder, reigned in hellish tumult, turned earth into a Pandemonium, and Paris into one great cauldron of blood, and filled the world with tears, ftnd groans, and yells of unearthly suffering, whose dying echoes still wail in every night-wind's sigh. Contrary too to the anticipations of the most fearful philanthro- pists, facts have every where proved that the progress of mere ii^itellectual development has been every where followed by the progressive increase of immorality, insubordination, and crime. From very full tables of the city of Glasgow and the county of Lanarkshire in Scotland it appears tliat of the whole criminals committed, sixty -eight per cent are educated, and only about 22 per cent uneducated, that is to say, the educated criminals are to the uneducated as two to one. The proportion is about the same of the whole criminals of Scotland, and it appears from the details given in Mr. Buckingham's travels in America, that the same proportion holds good in all the prisons in the United States. "And it is particularly worthy of observation, tliat it is in the /nore educated districts of the lower and middle wards that the increase of detected crime has been so rapid." And this was, too, during a period when the workmen enjoyed high wages, when the population was increasing 37 per cent, when manufacturing produce had doubled, when a new source of wealth in the iron 17 mines and manufactuTee had been opened, and an extension of manufacturing industry and wealth, unparalleled in the whole annals of civilization. Self-goverHment has here been tried on the greatest scale, and under the most favourable circumstances for the last forty years, and it has landed the community in 100,000 practical heathen within its bounds, in the continual existence of upwards of 6,000 unrelieved paupers in a single city, in the advance of serious crime at a rate four times as fast as the increase of the people, and in the diminution of the chances of life to an extent of five-and-twenty per cent in ten years." Now Scotland is the great example to which the advocates of secular education constantly point, as illustrating the effect of intellectual cultivation upon the character of mankind ; and boundless have been the eulogiums pronounced upon the moral virtues, steady character, and provident habits of that once held the most intellectual portion of the European population. Doubtless, as long as Scotland was an agricultural or pastoral country, and education was based upon religion — when the school-house stood beside the church, Scotland was a virtuous country, and its population deservedly stood high in the scale of European morality. But since manufactures have overspread its great towns, and a population has grown up in certain places — educated, indeed, but without the means of religious instruction, and almost totally destitute of religious principle — the character of the nation, in this respect, has entirely changed ; and it is a melancholy fact, that the progress of crime has been more rapid in that part of the British dominions, during the last ikiriy years, than in any other state in Europe. It appears from the evidence laid before the Combination Committee, in a late Session of Parliament, that the progress of felonies and serious crimes in Glasgow, during the last sixteen years, has been, beyond all precedent, alarming, the population having, during that period, advanced about seventy per cent, while serious crime has increased five hundred per cent. Crime over the whole country is advancing at a very rapid rate, and far beyond the increase of ^e popiilation. In England, the committals which, in 1813, were 2 18 7164, had risen in 1837 to 23,612, — that is to say, they had tripled in twenty-four years. This advance will probably be con- sidered by most persons as sufficiently alarming throughout England, but it is small, compared to the progress made by Scotland during the same period, where serious crimes have advanced from 89 in 1805, to 3418 in 1838; being an increase in four-and-twenty years, of more than thirty-fold.* The celebrated statistical writer, Moreau, thus sums up the progress of crime in the United Kingdom for the last thirty years : — " The number of individuals brought before Criminal Courts in England has increased five-fold in the last thirty years; in Ireland, five and a half; and, in Scotland twenty- nine-fold. It would appear that Scotland, by becoming a manufacturing country and acquiring riches, has seen crime advance with the most frightful rapidity among its inhabitants. "f Farther, the Tables below, compiled from the Parliamentry Returns of crimes tried in Scotland in 1837 and 1838, will show how extremely ill-founded is the opinion, that the majority of criminals are uneducated persons. :j: It is unnecessary to multiply evidence of a fact so perfectly • Parliamentary Returns. t Moreau'* SUiia'de la Grand Bretago*, ii. 297. I OFFENDERS. Conld nei- ther Read nor Write. Could Read and Write imperfectly. Could Read and Write well. Received a Superior Education. Education not nscer- tained. CD ■ Males Fcm;des. . . . 735 445 248 1345 427 479 41 65 3 57 16 ( 3126 693 1772 520 68 73 CO 00 ' Males ' Females. . . . 2609 809 353 198 1529 541 569 61 91 2 67 7 3418 551 2070 630 93 74 1837. 1838. Total Uneducated, 693 551 Total Educated 2360 2793 Thus the uneducated criminals in Scotland are not so much as a fifth of the educated, and while the former are declining in numbers, the latter are rapidly increasing. 19 apparent, of the total inadequacy of mere secular education to check the progress of crime in the British Islands. But a very singular and most interesting confirmation of the same principles has been afforded by the criminal returns of France, in the whole eighty-six departments of which it has been found that, with hardly one single exception, the amount of crime is jtist in proportion to the degree of instruction which prevails ; and that it is nowhere so prevalent as in those towns and depart- ments where education has been carried to the highest pitch. This extraordinary fact which, as Mr. Bulwer very candidly admits, has fairly overturned our highly preconceived ideas on the subject, is deserving of the most serious attention. Its authenticity is called in question only by that numerous class who will believe no facts which do not fall in with their own preconceived ideas. Returns of exactly the same character have been obtained from the statistics of America, and are to be found in M. Beaumont and Tocqueville's able work on the Penitentiary System of this country ; but the details are numerous, and it is sufficient to refer to the following quotation from that work : — " It may seem that a state having every vent for its industry and agriculture, will commit less crime than another which, equally enjoying these advantages, does not equally enjoy the advantages of intelligence and enlightenment. Nevertheless, we do not think that you can attribute the diminution of crime in the North to instruction, because in Connecticut, where there is far more instruction than in New York, crime increases with a terrible rapidity ; and if one cannot accuse knowledge as the cause of this, one is obliged to acknowledge that it is not a preventive."* There are, however, Tocqueville tells us, some institutions in America in which instruction does produce the effect of reforming even the most abandoned criminals. But mark the kind of education which, according to his high authority, has this effect. "The education in these houses is a moral * Beaumont and Tocqueville on the Penitentiary System of the United States, p. 147. 20 education ; its object is not merely to load the memory, but to elevate the soul. Do not lie, and do as well as you can are the simple words with which children are admitted into these institutions. Their discipline is entirely founded on morality, and reposes on the principles of true philosophy. Every thing is there calculated to elevate the minds of the persons in confine- ment, to render them jealous of their own esteem, and that of their equals. To obtain this object, they make a feint of treating them from the beginning, like men, and as already the members of a free society." But as Scotland is the country to which the supporters of intellecutal education uniformly refer in confirmation of their favourite tenets in regard to the influence of education on public virtue, I am anxious to make it evi- dent that it affords not the slightest countenance to their principles, but the strongest confirmation of those which have now been advanced. Scotland as she was, and still is, in the rural and pastoral districts, and Scotland as she is, in her great towns and manufacturing counties, are as opposite as light and darkness. Would you behold Scotland as she was, enter the country cottage of the as yet untainted rural labourer; you will see a frugal, industrious, and contented family, with few luxuries, but fewer wants, bound together by the strongest bonds of social affection, fearing God, and scrupulous in the discharge of every moral and religious duty ; you will see the young at the village school, under the shadow of the neighboring church, inhaling with their first breath the principles of devotion, and preparing to follow the simple innocent life of their forefathers, who repcse in the neighbouring churchyard ; you will see the middle-aged toiling with ceaseless industry, to enable them to fulfil the engagement contracted by the broken sixpence,* or maintain the family with which Providence has blest their union ; you will see the grey-haired seated in the armchair of old age, surrounded by their children and their grandchildren, reading the Bible every evening to their assembled descendants, and every Sunday night joining with them in the song of praise. ♦ Bride of Lammermoor. 21 Such was, and, in many places, still is, Scotland under the Church, the schoolmaster, and the Bible." " Would you behold Scotland as she now is in the manufacturing districts under the modern system, which is to supersede those antiquated prejudices? Enter the dark and dirty change-houses, where twelve or fourteen mechanics, with pale visages and wan cheeks, are assembled on Saturday evening, to read the journals, discuss the prospects of their trades'-unions, and enliven a joyless existence by singing, intoxication, and sensuality ; listen to the projects sometimes formed for offering violence to the obnoxious operative, or intimidating by threats other peaceable and industrious citizens; hearken to the gross and licentious conversation, the coarse and revolting projects which are canvassed, the licentious songs which are sung, the depraved tales told, the obscene books often read in these dens of iniquity ; follow them on, as they wander all night from change-house to change-house, associating with all the abandoned females they meet on the streets at these untimely hours, drinking a half-mutchkin here, a bottle of porter there, a gill at a third station, and indulging, without scruple, in presence of each other, in all the desires consequent on such stimulants and such society. Observe them continuing this scene of debauchery through all Saturday and Sunday night, and returning to their work, pale, dirty, unwashed, and discontented, on Monday or Tuesday morning, having been two nights out of bed, absent from their families, and spending almost all their earnings in profligacy, happy if they have not been worked up, at the close of this long train of debauchery, to engage in some highway-robbery or house-breaking, which consigns many of them to exile or the scaffold. Such is Scotland under the schoolmaster, the journalist, and the distiller ; and, grievous as the picture is, those practically acquainted with the habits of many of our manufacturers will not deem it overcharged." So speaks one of her sons. It has, I know, been thought that these calculations are wrong. But Mons. M. A. Quatelet in his recent and elaborate " Treatise on Man, and the developement of his faculties," which has been 22 published in several languages,* in the chapter on the propensity to crime, says, " Thus all things being equal, the number of criine^ against persons, compared with the number of crimes against property during the years 1828 and 1829 was greater, according as the intellectual state of the accused was more highly developed ; and this difference bore especially on murders, rapes, assassinations, blows, wounds, and other severe crimes." Again, " It is remarkable that several of the poorest departments of France, and, at the same time, the least educated, such as Creuse, Indre, Cher, Haute-Vienne, Allier, &c., are at the same time, the most moral, whilst the contrary is the case in most of the departments which have the greatest wealth and instruction. These apparent singularities are, I think, explained by the ob- servations which have been made above. Morality increases with the degree of education in the late kingdom of the Low Countries, which would lead us to believe that the course of education was better." And in giving his "conclusions" from all the facts analysed, he says, " 12th. Education is far from having so much influence on the propensity to crime as is generally supposed. Moreover, moral instruction is very often confounded with instruction in reading and writing alone, and which is most frequently an accessory instrument to crime." To use the language of Mr. Goadley in his recent letters from America : ' Fruit and progress,' says the Baconian philosopher, or one who assumes the name, (meaning thereby, the ' fruit' of sensual enjoyment, and the 'progress' of civilization, and the * arts of life') ' are the great ends and objects of our being, the tests of true philosophy.' Well, we have now been acting upon that principle in England for a great number of years, and it must be confessed, with great success — that is, we have made wonderful discoveries ; we have dived into the secrets of nature, and forced powers and elements, hitherto unknown, to minister to us ; we have accumulated unimagined wealth ; we have brought nearly to the perfection of luxury the art of living; and what is the result? Is England merrier now than she used to be ? more contented, * Republished in Edinb., 1842, by Chambers. See p. 84, 89, 95, Published also in Germany and Italy. 23 more loyal, more religious ? Alas, the united voice of the press, the parliament, the nation, answers 'No.' And yet people flatter themselves that nothing more is wanted than a further develope- ment of the same system, a more consistent carrying out of the same principle, in order to remedy the evils which exist ; and here in America, where all manifestly tends to a far more rapid consummation of the same result, where the same principles are at work, unchecked by the counteracting causes which linger among ourselves, every eifort seems to be made to allow them full and undisturbed action." Such proofs of the necessary influence of a mere intellectual developement of the powers of man, are leading very generally to the conclusion that education, unless when it is a religious EDUCATION, is a cursc, and not a blessing to any Society. " Re- ligious and moral education," says Cousin, is the first want of a people. Without this every other education is not only without real utility, but in some respects dangerous. If, on the contrary, religious education has taken firm root, intellectual education will have complete success, and ought, on no account, to be withheld from the people, since God has endowed them with all the faculties of acquiring it, and since the cultivation of all the powers of man secures to him the means of reaching perfec- tion, and through that, supreme happiness." Guizot has also said, " There is one thing demands our zeal above all others — I mean moral and religious instruction. "You know," he says in his letter to the primary teachers of France, " that virtue is not always the concomitant of knowledge, and that the lessons which children receive may become pernicious if addressed only to the understanding." " That religion," says Bolingbroke, is necessary to strengthen, and that it contributes to the support of Government, cannot be denied, without contradicting reason and experience both." Again, " To make Government effectual to all the good purposes of it, there must be a religion ; this religion must be national, and this national religion must be maintained in reputation and reverence." The iron-hearted Robespierre in that ever memorable conlave which voted that there was no (rod, could 24 boldly protest against the political inexpediency of the decision: excla.m:ng.^ inhere were no God; a wise Governn^ent would invent one ! Napoleon, according to the authority of a n^odern French statesman, was heard on one occasion to declare -''No society can exist without morals; and there can be no sound morals without religion. Hence, there is no firm or durable bul- wark for a State, but what religion constructs ; let, therefore, every school throughout the land, assume the precepts of religion as the basis of instruction. Experience has torn the veil from our eyes - It may be very interesting as a practical and most conclusive Illustration and proof of the different results of a religious educa tion, and an attempt to elevate a people by any other means to allude to the present condition of what were originally the same people in Wales and in Ireland. "Less than a century ago," says Mr. Lewis, -so late as the Rebellion of 174.5, the Highlands of Scotland were peopled with rude and half-savage clans, attached to the grossest superstitions of Popery, and following their chiefs to the field of battle in any quarrel, just or unjust, in which they might engage, destitute of the smallest tincture of letters or of religious knowledge and requiring a series of forts and garrisons to keep them from rebel lion and internal feuds. It has been too little observed how marvellous, in the lapse of a century, has been the change in the Highlands of Scotland. It has been still less observed in its cause. The Highlands have been planted with Protestant pastors, speaking the language of the natives, and they have heard, for 1 century, Christ preached in their mother-tongue. They have had parochial schoolmasters to teach their children, established by the care of the Church. To the parochial schoolmasters, too few in number for parishes so extensive in their boundaries, the General Assembly added 130 more, teaching, in English and Gaelic, the youth of the Highlands. The Bible has not only been translated, but everywhere circulated, and the Psalms have long since beeii given to them in their native tongue to be sung in their cottages and churches. The natural result of these efforts of a resideut preaching, teaching, and zealous clergy, is now visible in the quiet and good order of those once-disturbed districts, where aasassina- 25 tion, robbery, and fire-raising are unknown, and where the absen- tee landlords of England and Ireland may spend whole days and nights in autumn in roaming its mountains and valleys in search of game, undisturbed by aught but the respectful salute of the natives to the stranger. No part of all Scotland is at this moment so thoroughly Protestant and Presbyterian in its feelings as just those veiy Highlanders, whose ancestors fought and fell at the battle of CuUoden for the restoration of Prelacy and the Pretender. What a contrast to the Highlands of Ireland ! In 1745, they were in the same state as the Highlands of Scotland, under the dark- ness of Popery, ready to follow their chiefs in any quarrel, and zealous like them for Popery and the Pretender. But a century has passed, and, while the one population now rank among civilized and christianized men, the other remain the wild Irish still, ignorant, superstitious, vindictive, that know no law but the law of force, and can hardly be restrained by the presence of an armed soldiery or a disciplined police from breaking out at every interval into deeds of savage violence and cruel revenge. Yet, are they not the same race with the Celts of the mountains of Scotland, speaking the same language, and, a century ago, of the same religion, manners, habits, and customs ? Who has made them now so widely to differ but that Church which, to the Scottish Celts, has been a nursing-mother, feeding their children with ' the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock satisfying them,' while the Church of Ireland has been to the Celts of Ire- land a careless, unfeeling step-mother, that left her charge to roam in the wilderness, fed by strange shepherds, or devoured by wolves ?* The position is, therefore, I think, now demonstrated, that educa- tion, when it is not imbued with the spirit of religion, is power put into the hands of any people for evil and not for good ; and that instead of benefiting, it will prove injurious to any nation. f As * This might be argued also from the entire disproportion between reasoH or intelligence dLTid bruti force when armed by passion. Religion alone ca.n con- troul, and even conTeri into good, such force. See Butler's Analogy [mrt i, c. 3. See also the result of the non-reiiirioiis colleges of India under the support of the British government. See Duff on India and India missions, p. ^0, 271 and elsewhere at large and 583 584, 589. tThe state of the colleges in Holland powerfully confirms our conclusion, as represented by Dr. Capadose to the Free Church of Scotland. "But, unheard-of fact! in place of the article which promises equal protection to all religions, the union wuh God was the original law of man's nature, so is re- union wnh him essential to the perfection, harmony and happi- ness of his moral being. And to lead to this consummation every thing not on y in the ordinances and teaching of Christianity, bat also the whole experience of life, all that befals and belongs to him m zt,hKs domestic position, his social position, whatever is his whatever lies around him" are all made to work together to form one comprehensive scheme of discipline devised by infinite wisdom for the purpose of contributing to the accomplishment of that great design. The great end and aim of education, therefore is not to fit and prepare men for a successful scramble for the loaves and fishes, the gold and silver, the honours and emolu- ments, or any of the beggarly elements of earth, -but to secure the renovation of a heart which has fallen away from God by the operation of truth upon the mind and character ' '' Knowledge is not then a couch, whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrasse for a wandering and variabi: Government, in order not to nlease thp Prim,,, n ,v. v bidden all religious instruct! in tLf.hT^V ^u '''o '''''' '>^^ not only for- under a thousands pretexts h" ^nv sLi.I "t f '^' f''''' ^"^ ^^^'" ''i"' ^^'^''^ thl'^il^rsLirs^,- -l^f F^^£:^ij t '-: ?^'^-^-^ ^^ lion of whom Ihe irrea' iimiomv mnlii,,l» ,„ i ■>"? "'''"' f'"™ « genera- ■oua snarl, ofinfidelity on thl one lai^d and ill n' '"""""fi !>? "■» <"«''- r>ii.tLi°f^rdrteF-f;-^^ vital truths, such as the TrinTy-tlt D SX«r^^' v""" '^.?^'r'"«.'n ^hich religion-is d'enied in th^ rnC ns ^ \.Srer''%nri 1"" Ir"' 'k'^ teaching that our youn,, ministers are prepared f^r he prelchin: of the .o"nd m Home rests of our national education, then the gloomiest ' forebodings will be worse than realized. Then our nation's history may be written in this one sentence ;— Vital Christianity'reared on THIS GROUND A NATION OF FREEMEN; AND ITS ENEMIES AND FALSE FRIENDS PULLED IT DOWN. No. 3. Since writing and delivering the foregoing, I have found the following concurring views in papers received during my absence. The New York Evangelist after showing the necessity of Denomi- national Common Schools, says : — " Now, is there any real impracticability in such a plan ? Nay might not the Public School Fund itself contribute to such a plan' by being apportioned properly, for charity, to the schools connected with each church, without any distinction of sect? The Public School system, in this way, would see to it that in each church there was provision for the education of all, wliile the appointment of teachers, and the arrangement of a system of instruction, would 47 be with each sect, and more under control of the parents themselves, and of individuals whose attainments and intelligence might fit them for the work. " We believe that the voluntary principle would work as well and as happily in education as in religion. At all events, if our public system of education is in danger of running into a negative but practical infidelity — if there is to prevail in it a jealousy of the Bible — if everything's to be taught in it hut religion, and religion is to be excluded on the plea and pretence of sectarianism, we say, perish such a system, for our country would be ruined by it. It is time that this matter be looked to. Let those who wish an infidel education for their children, set up infidel schools; but let not the Public School system of education be thrown into the hands of ir- reiglious men, or neutralized of all religious influence, or rendered absolutely pernicious by the exclusion of religion, on account of the cry of sectarianism by infidels and sectarians. " A system of education is somewhere rotten, which even affords a possible opportunity to infidel demagogues to agitate in it for the exclusion of the Scriptures. A system of education is rotten, and must be injurious, which can become a bone of contention between political parties, or in which teachers are established, and branch- es and books appointed to be taught according to political bias and favouritism.. It is a fearful thing indeed, if the education of our children, the system by which their character and destiny for life, and perhaps for eternity, are to be formed, is to be made a foot-ball, to be kicked about by "the miserable stPJggles of opposing political parties. All boards of education and bands of commissioners had better be in the salt sea sunk, and the business of instruction lelt in chaos, except so far as private benevolence may take charge of it, than to have these sacred interests become the spoils of party, and the tools of intrigue and influence. " The very possibility of tliis is frightful. On.-> thing is certain. The business of education in our country may far more safely be trusted to the religion of our country, than to tiio politics of party in our country. Politics may exclude religion, may court secta- rianism, may corrupt the system of education to buy a sect ; and. mere politics never did and never will care on" farthing for the real interests of the soul, or the higher objects of education, either for time or eternity. But religion will sanctify education, and in any case will not, cannot, leave the children of our country without an education, or educate them in a practical infidelity. The subject is a great and important one. We li.'.'pe the attention of Christians will be more awakened to it, and vigilantly fixed upon it." And in a Report recently presented to the New Jersey Society for the improvement of Common Schools in urging the same plan it is said : " It is not to be expected that our religious and moral citizens, "Who esteem the Bible the great charter of our civil and religious liberty, will consent to have religion divorced from our public 48 schools for the purpose of maintaining a state system of instruction. In our Northern and Middle States these form the majority of our citizens. They pay nine-tenths of our taxes, and are the main pillars of all our institutions. And because they make less noise than the infidel and the papist, and make less effort to act in concert for political and party purposes, our legislatures seem more dis- posed to overlook their interests, and to disregard their wishes. But when the choice is fairly presented to educate their children under that system of compromise which our State schools require, and which so carefully sifts out every thing like evangelical reli- gion, or to break up those systems, they cannot long hesitate. It is too vast a sacrifice to require the three-fbui-ths of the children of a state to be educated infidels, that the other one-fourth may not be instructed in the Christian religion. All the moral, civil, social, temporal, eternal interests of man forbid sucli a sacrifice." " So that as our state systems of public instruction are now arranged, your committee cannot see how the moral and scriptural training of our youth can be secured under them. And unless these are secured, they feel persuaded that in Christian states the systems should not be permitted to exist. ' There is also a painful convic- tion upon their minds, that unless in an indirect way, states in their corporate capacity are unfitted to manage well, institutions having to do with the intellectual, social, moral, or even pecuniary inter- ests of the people. Churches controlled by the state are the worst of all churches — purely state colleges are the worst of all colleges ; and whether right or wrong, the men of our age have decided that state or national Banks are the worst of all Banks. Even Canals and Rail Roads are said to be best managed by private corpora- tions. And this is owing to the fact, a|)parently contradictory of a proverb of Solomon that in the multitude of legislative counsellors there is not safety, and for the reason that they are not all Solo- mons, and for the superadded reason, that all things controlled by the state, are so managed as to subserve political and party purposes. They find it more necessary to propitiate the heartless, unprincipled demagogue, than to follow in the paths pointed out by wisdom and experience. So that reasoning on general principles, and from universal results, we are forced to the conclusion, that except in an indirect way, states, and political corporations, are not the bodies to whom the management and details of our public school systems should be entrusted. " But can these systems be placed on a basis so as to secure the patronage of the State, and tlie moral, equally with the mental training of our youth ? This is a question of the gravest import, and for which your committee has now no solvent. To every plan which suggests itself objections arise, but by no means so fatal as are the objections to the present system." "Hence," says the New York Observer, " it appears that while in New York the Bible and other religious works are excluded because they are sectarian, infidel works are introduced under the plea that in- fidelity is not sectarian." 4 r '^^TE DIJP" ^y\/!^' jj^^'imi'^:^.