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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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There is another point of still more vital importance qh which Mr , James appears to us to deviate widely from the true p&th pf an enlightened benevolence . In expatiating on the danger of over-educating the people , and in attempting to define the amount of knowledge which may with safety he communicated to the productive clashes , he lias entirely lost
his way . Of all the forms of evil which the division of mankind into classes can assume , none is more pernicious than that which gives to one set of men the right to dole out knowledge to another set , according to some standard of sufficiency erected by themselves . They would have an equal right ( were it possible ) to limit their portion of light or of air . Let men who are the friends of education employ their energies in
making it as complete and perfect as possible—there is no danger of their making" it too good . Education , if enlightened , would begin for the children of all classes with the same endeavour to train and develope all the faculties , and the same communication of the grand elements of all true knowledge . Btern necessity will force away , to the world ' s work , the
ftc 1 * children of the poor , before they have had time to do much more than learn these elements ; out were it possible for them to continue the progress , true knowledge would lead no one to despise any occupation " that may become a man : ' the sooner all others are given over to operatives made of wood and steel , the better .
We are unable , also , to sympathize with Mr . James in the complacency with which he mentions the teaching of religion to the children by the ministers of their parent ' s varioun sects Religion , as felt b y a child , when learned , as Christ taught it , from the lilies of the Held , clothed more gloriously than Solomon on his throne—from the ravens , that neither sow nor
gather into barns , yet that God feeds—from his own beautifiil parables , or his own character , and life , aud death , is something so pure mid lovely that we shrink from the idea of the catechisms and creeds which the mention of ' the clergymen oi that persuasion to which the child ' s parents JUay belong , ' presents to the imagination . What is Christianity to the child ? It is " a tale of one who was sent by the great Joeing whom we cannot see , but who made us all ; \ yho was instructed
]> y Him Jo tell mankind of his love , and care , and kindness to all his creatures ; who shewed that lieinyj in the beauty of the flower , and thu brightness of the sun , and the grandeur oi sovereignty , and the affection of a father ; who told those touching parables , over vyhirh young eyes may weep , t * nd young minds may wonder ; who nuule that pmycr to our FylluT in Thriven , in which the child learns to pray ; whom wicked jijrji killed , but whom i ' mul made to live iign ' iu ; whom the good shall hv . made alive to meet und bu happy with for
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Jk * $ 4 vcntional Imiittfiau * qf Germany * 35
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1836, page 35, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2653/page/35/
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