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    repress all mental industry beyond what was necessary to secure the coveted emolument . And in the circle of what they teach , how much that is antiquated , how much that is useless , how much that is injurious is found ,

    and how much of what would be of the greatest service in cultivating the mind , expanding the heart , fitting for the intercourses of actual life—ho wmuch that would conduce to render their students the benefactors of their country and their kind , is altogether omitted ! And , transmitting their baneful influences from themselves to the institutions which are preparatory for

    their discipline , and thence to most of the schools throughout the country , thy universities retard the progress of the human mind by narrowing the range of subjects to which youth are admitted , keeping them almost exclusively to a few books in one or two dead languages , and rilling their minds with images , and their bosoms with attachments , altogether at variance with the pure , lofty , and benign spirit of Christianity . Thus does it happen that the universities , which ought to be the light and the glory of the country , are wrapped in the darkness of a barbarous age , stand not as beacons bearing the torch before advancing civilization , but as monuments of the antique , the obsolete , the disallowed , the effete ; that their sons , as far as they truly reflect the likeness of their parents , are in liberality of thought and action , in power and information of mind , a century in arrear of the other parts of the educated community $ that education in our schools , whether the books read be regarded , or the plans pursued , or the discipline enforced , is on almost every point at variance with the dictates of a sound

    p hilosophy and the principles of human nature . How humiliating is this picture when contrasted with that which Germany presents ! There , in the bosom of the church learning flourishes , education is studied as a science and promulgated as a blessing ; there , a perennial stream of knowledge is fed by the united exertions of Christian ministers , not rich enough to

    become either indifferent or idle , and more imbued with the spirit of their office than the spirit of the world . What puny creatures do our scholars appear by the side of these giants ! How worthless are our elementary books when compared with theirs ; " and what a reflection on our opulent Establish- * ' ment , that nearly all the good we have in works for education is borrowed from them ! Now , then , canst thou or wilt thou do thy duty ? and if not , wilt thou or canst thou retain thy too ample wages ?

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    The Question between the Nation and the Church . 831

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 831, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/35/