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 %\t ^tMtu\\m itt ^i%\tm of 
 
 A. LECTURE 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE 26th JANUARY, 1864. 
 
 BY THE REV. CANON LEACH, D.C.L., 
 
 VIOK-PBIKCXPAL AHD DBAK OF THE PACUT,TY OF ABT8 OF THB UHIVEBSIIT OF 
 VOILL OOLLEOK, MOIIT&SAI.. 
 
 S^Va>3&SiS2£31S> JSIS S&Sit^Vafit5« 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL, ST. NICHOLAS STREET. 
 
 1864. 
 
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 A. LECTURE 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE 26th JANUARY, 1864. 
 
 BY THE REV. CANON LEACH, D.C.L., 
 
 TICB-PBIITOIFAL ADD DBAN OF THB FAOVLTT OF ARTS 07 THE UNIVSB8IT7 Of 
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 PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL, ST. NIOHOLi c 
 
 1864. 
 
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A GREAT WORK LEFT UNDONE ; 
 
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 ^^ iMkratum in Ssstems of dktatiim. 
 
 The subject on which I propose now to speak may be 
 itated thus : Tlie possibility and the duty of Moral Teaching 
 apart from Religious, in ail the schools in which the youth of 
 the country receive elementary instruction. 
 
 Those who have given any attention to the subject of edu- 
 cation, and are acquainted with its history in Canada, will 
 immediately perceive, that what is now proposed is a matter 
 of some magnitude. It supposes an innovation in the curri- 
 culum of all the schools — the introduction of new matter into 
 the course of instruction ; it supposes an additional and very 
 considerable demand upon the attention of master and pupil ; 
 and this universally, — in every school and academy which 
 has pupils of an age suitable for instruction. 
 
 I do not conceal from myself the probability, I may say 
 the certamty, that the measure proposed will meet with oppo- 
 sition. It would be a vain hope to expect it wiU be readily 
 adopted, or even very generally approved of, upon its first 
 announcement. If any one should take the trouble of ponder- 
 ing the matter, many grave questions will naturally be sug- 
 gested to him, and first require their necessary solution ; mi. 
 
the question, if determined at all, will need to be determined 
 by a comparison of advantages and disadvantages, and there 
 may be counterbalancing considerations which it is diflBcult 
 to estimate. If serious objections are offered, I can only 
 say I shall listen to them with a very attending ear. How- 
 ever, I confess that my apprehension of difficulties chiefly 
 arises from some forms of prejudice which I foresee must be 
 encountered, and to some of these it is absolutely necessary 
 to advert, were it only to show that there is any case at all 
 presented for adjudication. Notwithstanding, I cannot easily 
 persuade myself, that the plan which I am to endeavour to 
 explain and recommend, has in itself anything which ought 
 to dispose one to look upon it at once with an unfavourable 
 eye. Some experience has convinced me that there are 
 very many persons here who labour much for the benefit of 
 tljeir fellow-creatures, whose labour has much genuine love 
 in it, and who will be the last to regard with indifference 
 t^e suggestion of any method that promises to serve the 
 same caUse for which they labour. Confident in this, I 
 Tenture to lay my humble contribution at the feet of those 
 vho may choose to take it up and dehberate as to its value 
 as an instrument for good. 
 
 S'irst of all, it may be said, that in regard to the matter 
 ii^ question things are well enough as they are. It may be 
 said th^it there are very many schools in which moral in- 
 etructipn is given, and given very constantly, as proper occa- 
 sions offer ; that there are very few, if any, in which it is 
 not given, since every master must feel it to be his duty to 
 correct tfee misconduct of his pupils, to condemn the expres- 
 eipn of all bad feeUng, and rectify in them whatever he 
 observes to l^^ immoral in word or deed ; it may be allegecl 
 ih%t the Ijpoks which they read at school, the Bible and 
 otl^er l^ppl^s wer adapted for purposes of education, that the 
 Sunday Sphpols, and expositions given by the teachers — that, 
 bj^ t^ese fuad. otl^QC means, children are not uninstructed in 
 
6 
 
 their duties, and that any apecidl mean's, in Addition to the'a'^, 
 is superfluous. Let all this be granted; let all this b6 
 Supposed to be done with the greatest tenderness and care ; 
 Still, that is not done which needs to be done. How irre- 
 gular and desultory is all the moral instruction which tte 
 J)upil8 receive when compared with the intellectual ! Spell- 
 ing, writing, grammar, reading, geography, and arithmetic, 
 day after day, year after year, the work, in some division 
 of these, proceeds steadily arid perseveringly. To inarch 
 through these, or most of them, at the highest possible speed, 
 is the great task to be exacted from the pupil, and the eiiii 
 for which the master must supply every facility, and apply 
 every spur he is at liberty to a|)ply. Regularly, remors'e- 
 Ifessly, &,nd with keen tension, goes on the preparation for tfe^ 
 luaineas of life, but what shall we say as to the prejparaticiit 
 ibr the duties Of life ? These are, at most, a bye-work ; the^ 
 toe to be learnt accidentally and in a random way, constitut- 
 ing but a vague and obscure kind of knowledge, reflectiii'g 
 the sentiments of this or that master, or of some other good 
 man here and there, or the instructions of a parent, or the 
 brief moral dicta of a catechism, if if happen to contain any, 
 but yielding no moral illumination of any material value, iio 
 iaoral emotion of a permanent character. Will any parent, 
 irho has made the examination, sifter his children have passed 
 through their course at school, say, for instance, th^t th6y 
 hiive been carefully instructed in duties respecting truths 
 jpromises, engagements and contracts ; instructed in the sin- 
 fulness of their violation by exaggerations, verbal evasions, 
 reservations and shufflings ; instructed as to immoral, un^a^- 
 ful, aind extorted promises, as to the conditions which coriaii- 
 tut6 valid engagements and contracts morally, as to Wii4t 
 relieves the promisor from his obligation to the promisee, &c., 
 iftc. ? will any parent say, that they h^ve been instnictell 
 iia to the benevolent affections that have respect to oth'6wf, 
 Qt Hb to the malevolent Affections such as hatred, malice. 
 
6 
 
 reTenge, and the offences and crimes which these give ris* 
 tOf their character and punishment ? A simple enumeration 
 of these, and of the duties and virtues that have respect to 
 property, to purity, or chastity, to government and the lawB| 
 and the corresponding offences and crimes to be shunned, 
 would tire your patience and require time and space which 
 are not at my command. Human duties are numerous. 
 They require to be taught in detail. To present them in the 
 form of general apices or heads only, is practically useless. 
 In this form they are cloudy and barren, like the tops of 
 mountains. There are few, I presume, who will be disposed 
 to contend for the suflSciency in this respect of the present 
 system. I believe that no one will deny its insufficiency, — 
 no one at least, who has a right apprehensi(m of the value of 
 what is desiderated, and an acquaintance with the actual 
 state of education in the country, except those indeed, and I 
 trust they are not many, in whom long practice generates the 
 belief that the present course is something like perfection, 
 and induces resistance to change as something destructive 
 of it. 
 
 The work of moral instruction ought to be commenced as 
 systematically and carefully as any other subject taught, 
 whenever the scholars are capable of reading well, and of 
 ^ving, in their examinations, an account of what they read. 
 With a suitable text-book, there is nothing to prevent them, 
 even at an early age, say between ten and fourteen, any two 
 years between these, from attaining distinct conceptions of 
 the most important points in relation to rights of person, of 
 property, of contracts, of marriage, of government. These, 
 and the corresponding obligations, as far as it in needful 
 practically, might unquestionably be made intelligible to 
 them. I think it also unquestionable, that it is the duty of 
 some to teach them these things. They surely ought to be 
 told what actions are held to be offences ^d crimes, in what 
 light they are regarded, and with what punishments visited. 
 
ilot ihat this ought to be done with oyer-minutenees, tnA 
 sufficiently to awaken reflection, and serve as bo many cautionft 
 vr warnings against law-breaking. I do not say that it is tbft 
 ^result of any observation of my own, but I find it asserted 
 that *' judges and ma^strates are sometimes compelled to 
 punish oflFenders whom they believe entirely ignormU of 
 the law they have v'^olated." Of course, laws against 
 crimes are always promulgated, but it does not follow 
 that, in the remoter parts of the country especially, they are 
 always known ; and I think it extremely probable that many 
 a sour and malignant nature would have been checked in his 
 meditated crime, had he been previously made conscious of 
 the detestation with which society regards it and fully 
 acquainted with its consequences in regard to himself. 
 
 I fortify what has been said on this subject by the opinion 
 t>f some of our most eminent judges and jurists. 
 
 The Hon. Mr. Justice McCord says as follows : 
 
 *' I am firmly convinced that moral training in the Common 
 Schools would greatly lessen crimes and offences." 
 
 The Hon. Mr. Justice Aylwin says : 
 
 "As to Common Schools without Moral Instruction, I con- 
 ceive that it is robbery to the community, not to be thought 
 of in any Christian land." 
 
 The Hon. Mr. Justice Badgley says : 
 
 " I think that early habits and impressions of the better 
 kind, whatever they may be, are the most lasting, and the 
 tender charities of home, the kindnesses of early life, which all 
 in some degree have experienced, however small that degree 
 may be, are the most ineffaceable, and even in the most des- 
 perate subjects exhibit their power — their moral power — ^in 
 temporarily softening and toning down the most abandoned 
 ^ynd depraved. Such feelings predispose for Moral Instruc- 
 laon, to commence upon in the young, and if there is a stand- 
 
point at all for any of them, cannot fail to be beneficial in th^ir 
 influence, if properly attended to, &c. 
 
 I am Very much disposed to believe that criminals rarely 
 turn to the consideration of how their offences may b© 
 regarded by the laws at the time of their commission. They 
 Imow that the law, as regards them, is merely a means of 
 punishment, atid whatever may bo their original motive for 
 the Cbrcmission of the crime, their great consideration is suc- 
 cess, and it is only aftei that, that the avoidance of detection 
 follows the fear of punishment." 
 
 The Hon. Mr. JusTtCE Dat expresses himself as follows : 
 
 " With respect to ^e ignorance of criminals, of the character 
 6f ttieir acts, as viewed by the instructed and orderly classes 
 of society, I have no doubt that, in frequent cases, it is very 
 greait, perhaps absolute among the children of the vicious. 
 Trained in a course of vice, the moral sense becomes perverted^ 
 and the distinction between right and wrong rests ohie% 
 upon the fear of detection and punishment. 
 
 I think it is exceptional, even among those whose child- 
 hood has not been passed in familiarity with crime and crim- 
 inals, that they have a perceptibn of the mioral evil, t"he wrong- 
 doing of their acts. Itey oftener r6?gard theniaelves dB in a- 
 ^ate of natural wai^re with the law tind the mote fbrt^tctb 
 classes whom it protects, and consider themselves eMtled t(> 
 take all they can from them ; and oftener consider themselves 
 as the injured than as the '>iuiing party. T^ia feeling 
 comes out every day in the C •; iiinal Courts, and I have often 
 been struck with the reflection, how early our selfishness leada 
 )3A to reverse all the rules of justice and morality. 
 
 tt is unnecessary to say, after these hurried sentences, 
 that not only the right, but the only right place to beg)ua & 
 y6un^ reform, is with the young. I have little faith in elfortii 
 to reclaim old ofiehders. tVe are bound to continue them, 
 "but I fear success is Very rare. If a judicious system ot 
 
Moral Training could be introduced into our Common Schools, 
 it would be a great step in the right direction, the difficult 
 Sb, to avoid sectarianism, so that no jealousy should bfe 
 excited among diiFerent religious denominations." 
 
 Edward Carter, Q. C. : 
 
 " It frequently happens that the offenders are ignorant of the 
 light in which their crimes are regarded by the law. More 
 particularly is thit) the case with the classes known as juve- 
 nile offenders, who are very numerous, and who, from the 
 want of moral instruction, early commence a career of crime, 
 jfrom which it is difficult to extricate them. A violation of 
 the law becomes a crime in the offender, when he possesses 
 knowledge to distinguish between right and wrong; but, 
 without moral instruction, the power of discernment must, in 
 many cases, "be wanting; and that which is in reality a 
 Crime in the eye of the law, is regarded as nothing more 
 tJian a clever or bold achievement. 
 
 The second question, whether moral instruction received by 
 the young in the Common Schools would tend to lessen the 
 number of offences, admits, in my opinion, of no doubt what- 
 ever. It is owing to the absence of moral instruction th&t 
 crimes are so multiplied as to point out the necessity of 
 directing our attention to the cause, and not only to the 
 means of correction. The law may to a certain extent effect 
 some good, by denouncing crime and punishing offenders. 
 The best remedy, however, is a preventive one — to be secured 
 ontyby a system of moral instruction in the Coinmon Schools." 
 
 The part of the plan which I have now indicated, belongft 
 itrictly to the science of jurisprudence. But it is to bfe. 
 remembered that jurisprudence and morality are in a great 
 measure one. They overlap each other practically, and the 
 tendency of both is the same in kind ; and it is on this 
 ftooount that I comprehend both under the more general 
 d^gnation of morality. 
 
10 
 
 And here I beg to call attention to what I consider (at 
 important observation in regard to the object of the plan I 
 have in view. The design is not specially nor chiefly directed 
 to the class of persons termed criminals. That its effecte 
 will be beneficial in that lower sphere — that the number of 
 criminals will be diminished, I hold unquestionable. Still, 'm 
 every community, criminals may be expected. The species 
 is immortal, because, in some natures, the hereditary corrup- 
 tion seems almost complete and the prospect of all human 
 efforts at reformation as vain as the attempting a transforma- 
 tion of the species. The only thing with regard to the worst 
 cases is hanging or constant confinement and constant occu- 
 pation. But it is not from this class that the danger to 
 society, as I believe, arises. Whatever it may be in the large 
 cities of the older states of Europe, it is not from this quarter 
 that the dangerous forces are likely to break out in Canada, 
 but from another and far more widely extended class, and 
 of which the individuals are comparatively respectable. Of 
 this class there are multitudes almost entirely destitute of all 
 sentiment of jural obligations — not absolutely irreligious, but 
 whose moral discrimination is almost blindness itself, whose pre- 
 dominating motives are some form of rapacious selfishness, 
 and who regard all the necessary institutions of society rather 
 as obstructions to themselves than as the essential conditions 
 of human well-being. This comparatively good class is tre- 
 mendously numerous and extended. 
 
 After this, the moral duties, of which the forementioned 
 are the expression in law, might be proceeded to, — duties of 
 the affections, filial, parental, fraternal, &c — duties respect- 
 ing property, truth, purity, public order. There is no cause 
 why the virtues in connexion with these, and to which in 
 our own language there are so many precise and intelligible 
 denominations, should not be explicitly dwelt upon. A state- 
 ment of human rights and obligations, of human duties and 
 virtues, at once comprehensive enough and sufficiently plain 
 
11 
 
 %nd explicit to be a suitable instrument of instruction, I 
 suppose then to be placed in the hand of every master 
 and of every scholar of the proper age, and that the teaching 
 from this text-book shall go on simultaneously with the othe^ 
 exercises. This is the general outline of the plan. 
 
 It may be said there is no time for this. I think the objec- 
 tion of no value . Between the age of ten and twelve , or that of 
 twelve and fourteen, according to the attainments or capacity 
 of the pupils, even with all the other exercises ordinarily 
 done, I feel confident that this exercise may be introduced 
 without prejudice to their proficiency. The number of hours 
 at school daily is no measure of the means of proficiency. 
 The proficiency must always be exactly in the proportion of 
 the amount of attention given. A lesser portion of time 
 if spent attentively, or in earnest application, is much 
 more successful than the lax inaction, which usually pre- 
 vails for indefinite periods, in almost all the common 
 schools. The pupils seem to think much, but for the greater 
 part of the time, they actually think nothing to the purpose. 
 The various subjects which are now taught are not found, 
 generally speaking, by consequence of the variety, to be each 
 less easily learnt. Granting, however, that the apprehension 
 is well founded, are there not some subjects taught, compara- 
 tively insignificant, a lesser progress in which might well 
 be conceded, and of which even an utter exclusion would be 
 almost immaterial ? 
 
 The success of teaching in the kind proposed must of course 
 very much depend upon the moral earnestness and intelligence 
 of the master. So does success in every other subject ; and 
 if competency in other things is looked for in the master, why 
 may it not be looked for and required in this ? There 
 is also this to be said, as to the matter of the instruction 
 recommended, that it will hardly be possible for the master 
 himself, having mor?l principles constantly brought into his 
 thoughts, not to feel their operative energy, when he strives 
 
12 
 
 for the intellectual as well as tlie moral cultivation of hia 
 pupils ; and this is a consideration of some value, for many 
 masters may themselves need to study the subject, and every 
 master may exert a wide moral influence. At first, it will, ho 
 doubt, in the case of most teachers, bring some additional 
 labour in the way of preparation, but it is a kind of labour 
 that has incitements and rewards of its own. They will feel, 
 if they are the right men in the right place, that they are 
 distributing that which in its nature is a good imperishable, 
 and will rejoice that in communicating their light to others, 
 they have the happy experience that the candle of Lhe Lord 
 burns nothing the less brightly within themselves. 
 
 As to the possibility of communicating to the young the 
 kind of knowledge which I desire to be taught univeir- 
 dally as a part of the course in all schools, I may perhaps 
 be allowed to say, that my own experience in teaching first 
 suggested it, and furnished decisive evidence of it. It has 
 often been to me the occasion of most agreeable surprise, to 
 witness the facility with which young persons grasp the full 
 fliignificance of moral truths. I aili convinced that there id^ 
 that within them, which tends to reach forth to the laws of 
 Cl-6d, when they are explicitly set before them ; and I have 
 often observed, that many who comparatively fail in other 
 Subjects, such as languages, grammar, and arithmetic, evince 
 readiness of perception, and nice discrimination in question^ 
 of a moral nature, for one soul differeth from another soul 
 in glory. This is a fact that cannot, I believe, bft 
 accounted for by the supposition of any marked difference of 
 previous culture ; and although it may be next to impossible^ 
 in any two diverse cases, so to analyze the facts, as to detef- 
 mine anything conclusively with respect to the influence of 
 authority:, or previous culture in the production of the dif- 
 ferent susceptibilities adverted to, yet a comparison of m&tty 
 cases, in which the previous conditions are very similar, iS,. 
 with me, evoh of itself, a justification of the belief, that there- 
 
18 
 
 exists originally and independently a tendency or power to feel 
 and discriminate morally, stronger in some than in others ; but 
 in point of fact, it is a tendency or power which, more or less, 
 "it may be said, is inherent in all, an incarnation of the eternal 
 law, which God in his mercy has left in the souls of his im- 
 mortal children, for all the calamity of the first and great trans- 
 gression. Hence it is that the response of young persons to 
 moral rules, when presented in clear and plain language, is 
 generally immediate and spontaneous. In many instances this 
 is so remarkably apparent that it is like the mere opening 
 of the eyes to see the daylight. What child almost does not 
 spontaneously recognize the duty of treating its parents with 
 tenderness and respect ? And whenever its thoughts are 
 detained upon it, how powerful are the emotions that rise up 
 simultaneously with the first apprehension of a moral rule 
 on the subject, and preserve it from oblivion, stored up 
 amongst the many thousands of other objects that have their 
 place in the hive of the ever active mind. It may have been 
 ot)served by any one, who has ever noticed attentively the 
 conduct of little boys engaged in their sports or games, how 
 the sense of justice manifests itself when one of them hap- 
 pens to be detected in an act that violates it. You hear the 
 indignant cry from some bystander, " that's cheating," or on 
 the other hand, the no less resentful denial of the charge. 
 This is not entirely the effect of impressions from without. 
 Some internal force, that gives them their vitality, must lie at 
 the root of such feelings as these. I may mention a case 
 that fell under my own particular observation. It was the 
 case of a boy, who exhibited very strongly what I have 
 always considered an original sentiment of truthfulness. 
 Believing himself suspected of having told a lie, in conse- 
 quence of a mere inadvertency of the way in which he had 
 expressed himself in regard to some fact, he became restless 
 and unhappy. The idea preyed upon him indeed to such a 
 degree that his bodily health was visibly affected ; he could 
 
14 
 
 no longer endure to live at strife with his own nature, in 
 violation of an intuition so powerful, and to terminate his 
 misery, determined upon self-destruction — an event that wa» 
 onlj averted bj an accidental occurrence that brought about 
 an explanation. In this case there was no complexity 
 to be discovered, no fears of after consequences, no personal 
 interests in any way affected. I believe that it was an 
 instance of purely moral consciousness, which thus appears to 
 have been as powerful as could have been the belief of an 
 avenging justice following him, even to the gates of helL 
 Nor is this to be wondered at, for even a heathen, could say : 
 " I hate, as I hate the gates of hell, the man who has one 
 thing in his heart, another on his tongue." 
 
 It is observable that the love of approbation is very strong 
 in many young persons. It is a sentiment of which the ten- 
 dency is certainly moral. Clearly it is a desire that seeks 
 its gratification, on the ground of some good thing done or 
 supposed to be done, of some excellence possessed or sup- 
 posed to be possessed. It is a force against which the love of 
 life or the fear of death is as nothing ; the force of certain 
 springs of action that have their source in the human heart, 
 and which thus often manifests itself in early youth. And 
 here I may be allowed to ask how it happens that while 
 everybody acknowledges that the soul has in itself a power 
 that tends to Music, there is at least an apparent reluctance 
 to recognize the existence of a moral consciousness as inherent 
 in the soul ? Music, and the perception of beauty in form and 
 in colour, are not more to the " manor born " than are the 
 moral powers, and probably are much less capable of cultiva- 
 tion upon the whole. 
 
 The truth is, that young persons are much more easily 
 instructed in moral duties than persons of mature age. Th& 
 instinctive or intuitional power by which they are appre- 
 hended, operates in them more directly and spontaneously 
 than in others. Grown-up persons — the multitude of them* 
 
15 
 
 at least — who never, in any part of their life, had their atten-^ 
 tion directed and steadily applied to moral subjects, can see 
 them only through a medium that distorts and discolours 
 them,. The light that was in them has been darkened. The 
 tendencies of the age, so vigorous and active, almost exclu- 
 B'-sly in the direction of material interests and advantages, 
 have corrupted and choked up the fountain-heads of moral 
 feeling. This is unconsciously manifested in a great vanety 
 of ways. Moralizing is the term with which a reference to 
 duties is contemptuously parried. Moralizing is adverse to 
 the gratification of sinful passions, and adverse to the expedi- 
 tion of business. As to the positive rules of duty, what are 
 they not unusually thought to be, but the necessary and con- 
 venient regulations which people have adopted from time to 
 time for their social intercourse, many of them useless, or 
 positive hindrances to success in life — many of them anti. 
 quated since the time they were begotten in the clouds of past 
 ages, and none of them dependent upon authority universally 
 held as infallible. They are the things of yesterday or to-day 
 as they happen to suit the pleasures, the interests, or the 
 conveniences of the community, or of any portion of it, or of 
 any individual of it. How all this is to ultimate, is a very 
 fearful question, but not the one in hand. Our hope must be 
 in the young. Before they drift into the abyss they are more 
 
 i accessible. The divine in them may be more readily elicited 
 
 ' and cultivated. The next generation will have, in a very 
 great degree, its character determined by what is now done, 
 
 ;' or neglected to be done, for the children of this. As cer- 
 tainly as one generation goes and another comes, must the 
 religious and moral training of the young now in the schools 
 
 ^. bear fruit in their maturer years ; and unless successful 
 efforts are now made in the right direction ; unless, among 
 the other sciences, the young are taught the science of their 
 
 I duties ; and, I shall add, unless the truly religious and well. 
 
 v intentioned part of the community unite all their force to give 
 
 i 
 
 ^ 
 
16 
 
 strength and depth to the moral training which it is proposed 
 they shall receive, I, for one, am persuaded that all the efforts 
 which are being made by all the different agencies now employ- 
 ed, will fail to confer on society here or anywhere the vast and 
 invaluable blessings which they intend, and might otherwise be 
 able to confer. If it were made a peremptory condition that 
 such instruction should be given in every school that receives 
 public aid, and the proper msans adopted to secure its 
 being given, I have the hope and complete conviction that 
 people's judgments would be more discriminating, their 
 feelings more vigorous as to every duty of human life, private 
 ai^d public, and, at no distant period, the general state of 
 society be changed for the better, instead of sinking to a 
 lower deep thai^ the deep that is. 
 
 All that is necessary in this, as in other processes, is to 
 draw the thougjits of the young at school to the subject day 
 after day — to furnish them with correct forms of expression — 
 that their conceptions may become clearer and clearer, and to 
 le?*i them gradually over a field of important moral truths, so 
 coimected as to be the more easily remembered. The teacher, 
 I an^ persuadpd, will find his labour more successful than he 
 might at first be disposed to expect. An unseen power, a cer- 
 tain coeea potential will soon yield itself, and supply the matter 
 requisite for the exercise of the logical faculty. He will soon 
 discover that something is prepared ready for his hand,- — that 
 there is some link of communication between th^ soul and its 
 Creator, that something has been provided by that Divine pro- 
 vidence, tlufc has been awake from everlasting—" There is a 
 spirit in man, and it is the breath of the Almighty that giveth 
 him understanding.^* 
 
 Besides, the possibility of moral mstruction seems to be 
 generally acknowledged. In some sense or other, efforts are 
 everywhere made, however irregularly or unwisely, to give a 
 moral character to the young. Admonitions or remonstrances, 
 friendly advice or earnest expressions of persuasion, are 
 
17 
 
 occasionallj given to some or all of his scholars by every good 
 master ; and the belief in the possibility and good effects of 
 such means and kind of instruction is therefore to be pre> 
 sumed. There have always been many schools, even from 
 the time of their first establishment in Europe in the 6th cen- 
 tury, in which religious and moral instruction was given, or in 
 which, when not given formally and systematically — the disci- 
 pline and incidental teaching were of a highly moral character. 
 Religious and moral teaching is alleged to be imperative in the 
 Normal Schools of France. In Switzerland, we are informed 
 that religious instruction, and instruction in the rights and 
 duties of citizens, is given in the communal or parochial 
 schools. Moral and religious teaching has not been overlooked 
 in the schools of Holland and Prussia ; and it cannot be doubted 
 that the introduction of instruction of this kind into any Chris- 
 tian State in Europe or America would be matter of rejoicing 
 to every statesman of character and influence. Upon the 
 desirableness and beneficial effects of it, the .'e is, of course, 
 a general, and we may say, complete agreement of opinion. 
 It is observable however, that, in all these cases religious 
 instruction is connected with moral, whenever it is designed 
 to adopt a general plan of educe tion. 
 
 This brings me to the part of my subject at which I appre- 
 hend the chief diflSculty to the plan proposed. Any general 
 system of school education, into which, in the Protestant 
 schools, religious and moral instruction conjointly should be 
 introduced, need not be contemplated. It is a consumma- 
 tion. Oh ! how devoutly — alas ! how vainly to be wished. 
 The consideration of it may be dismissed at once; that 
 question, at least, is a settled one. But, leaving out the relig- 
 ious element, why, I ask, may not the moral element be retained 
 as imperative ? In suggesting this separation, I will not, I 
 trust, be understood to assert the possibility of a separation 
 of morality from religion unflerstood absolutely, that is, as 
 considered apart from the external conditions in which religion 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 subsists in human society. On the contrary, all our beat and 
 purest ideas of Moral Truth necessarily imply, and, at any 
 rate, must infallibly assume, a Being in whom they reside in 
 perfection. But, for practical purposes, religions^ orformB 
 of religion^ as they are^ are not necessarily connected with 
 Moral Instruction. There is no reason in the world why it 
 should not bo given separately, and as faWj as possible. 
 The young are not on that account denied the religious in- 
 struction given by the Church to which they belong, or by any 
 other means ; nor can they be the less susceptible of being 
 impressed by the powerful motives which religion presents, 
 ih consequence of the moral cultivation which they receive 
 at school. They must only be so much the more susceptible 
 of all good impressions ; and it is hard to see how any good 
 Christian, or any Christian Church, that acknowledges an 
 interest in human salvation, and understands what it means, 
 can innocently reject the help which, on a great scale, they 
 may thus receive for the promotion of their object. They 
 might as rationally object to the moral teaching of the laws 
 of the land, without which there would be very little teaching 
 indeed in any kind, or any human society better than that 
 of the beasts of the field. 
 
 The churches of a country might naturally be expected to 
 have respectively charge of the moral as well as of the reli- 
 gious instruction of the young of their own communion. It 
 is the office of the Church de Jure, to care foy the education 
 of the young, for Christ has said, " Suffer little children to 
 come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the king- 
 dom of heaven." It is the office of the Church de facto, to 
 care for the education of the young, for the Church " bap- 
 tizes them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of 
 the Holy Ghost, i. e. the children are hers spiritually, for 
 she has received them mto her fold. So far as the Church 
 in Lower Canada is concerned, this has not been found prac- 
 ticable to the extent that is due. There are a few schools in 
 
I 
 
 i 
 
 19 
 
 ifhich clergymen take an active interest, but, even in these, 
 the thing specially desiderated finds no prominent place, is 
 not recognized as a regular part of the course, is not continu- 
 ously and systematically taught. I doubt whether this be 86 
 done in any of the Protestant schools, or in any schools whafr* 
 soever : that is to say, the most valuable thing that can be 
 done for the young of the present, and for the young and 
 old of another generation, is left undone, or nearly so. The 
 duties that relate to the regulation of their temper and pa*- 
 sions — are these not to be touched upon ? The duties that 
 relate to their intercourse vrith their fellow-creatures — so 
 interwoven, so diversified that there is hardly a day in one's 
 conscious existence, in which, to act with uprightness and 
 with a beneficial benevolence, the best educated moral sensi- 
 bility and discrimination of the human being, are not called 
 for — are these to be passed over as what may be well spared ? 
 The duties of the citizen, — in all the manifold cases in which he 
 may be called upon to contribute voice or deed for the supu 
 port of public order, for the furtherance of law, for the 
 authority of the magistrate, or the defence of his country ; 
 in short, all those duties, the intelligent perception of which 
 is generally essential as a basis of private, domestic and 
 pablic virtue, — are not to be permitted to interrupt, as it is 
 erroneously believed it would do, the solemn march of the 
 business education. Reading, writing, arithmetic, &c., of 
 course, I say nothing against them. These must be. It is 
 honourable to the Canadian Goverment and people, that so 
 liberal a provision has been made for elementary instruction 
 in these subjects, and as to the more extended and earnest 
 cultivation of all departments of literature and science, whioh 
 of late years has been witnessed in the Colleges and High 
 Schools, this is a fact which no one can contemplate but with 
 thankfulness and gratification. But the question is chieflj 
 in regard to the subjects taught in the Common Schools. 
 Are then reading, writing, geography, and arithmetic— are 
 
these the only subjects to be taught in them, with any 
 serious purpose of proficiency ? Is a system, in which these 
 and these alone are recognized, — a system, which so many 
 Christian teachers, so many Christian denominations, so many 
 Christian statesmen ought to acquiesce in silently, or be con- 
 tented with or honour with their praise ? Are the youth of 
 the country to be kept, for so important a period of their exis- 
 tence, closely intent upon that knowledge only which perishes 
 in the using ? Are the girls and boys to be let depart from 
 their schools, writing, and reading, and calculating beings 
 only ? Are these to be the only qualifications or powers 
 they are to be allowed to get possession of ? Are these the 
 nectar and ambrosia that are to maintain the moral life of 
 Christ's lambs in the future heaven, you wish they may have, 
 on 'earth? 
 
 The separation of the religious from the moral element is 
 a compromise reluctant but indispensable. It is the only 
 alternative. Were it possible for the Christian Church to 
 employ concurrently bpth the religious and moral element, it 
 would be a security many times multiplied for the success of 
 the object in view. If it were possible, I would have the 
 Church extend over the moral and religious intuitions of the 
 youthful spirit the whole of her solenm and purifying influence. 
 I would have that sacred realm entered only by the holiest 
 ministers of truth, — I would have the lamps of the eternal 
 light that glimmer so dimly amidst the ruins of a fallen nature, 
 fed only by the purest and deftest hands ; nor would I shrink 
 with any over-scrupulous timidity from the employment of 
 any of the ordinary means of impression, which the Church 
 employs to symbolize the awful repugnance of heaven to 
 every species of sin or moral evil, or to represent the tender- 
 ness and sweetness of the grace of God in Christ. But it 
 avails nothing to say what one desires should be. Only I 
 wish it to be understood in advocating the scheme of separar 
 tion, that it is far from a pleasure that so sacred a thing as 
 
21 
 
 the instruction of the young in this way, should be withdrawn 
 from the direct agency of the Christian Church. Nor is it 
 for me to utter thoughts of reproach to the blame of any 
 Christian Churches, or denominations of Christians in times 
 past. Oil which there is a trace of the broad seal of the great 
 King, on the supposition of their having a part either in the 
 way of silent acquiescence or incentive approval in the acts 
 or series of acts which removed this sphere of labour from 
 their care and jurisdiction severally. 
 
 I confess I see no cause why the ministers of the Chris- 
 tian faith of any Church or denomination should be opposed 
 to the plan or method proposed ; why, indeed, many of 
 them should not act as the immediate agents in its successful 
 accomplishment in the schools over which they have any 
 direct authority or regulative influence. If they cannot 
 enter into this fruitful field themselves, they will assuredly 
 be the last to hinder others. In many of the common 
 schools there are teachers, — would to heaven there were more 
 — who, neither wanting in virtuous feeling, nor industrious 
 study, could instruct their scholars, and that with no unper- 
 suasive voice, in the duties that human life demands, and the 
 virtues by which it is adorned, according to the method 
 proposed. This is a work which is not necessarily to be confined 
 to the prophets, nor the sons of the prophets, if in the time 
 of our extremity (as it seems but too manifest in our present 
 circumstances it is) the visions of the prophets must fail and 
 the prophecy cease, in this particular work to be done at so 
 important a period — indeed the most critical period of our 
 human life. If we are not to instruct the youth of the land 
 in the law of the revealed Word, why deny them the bene- 
 fit of instruction in the law written in their hearts. If we 
 are not to supply them with the children's bread, why refuse 
 them the crumbs that fall from their master's table ? 
 
 My desire at least, and my convictions are, that what I 
 propose will be found auxiliary to the great work which all 
 
22 
 
 churches, and all good ministers of them, design and believe 
 it their proper mission to accomplish. It is a process for the 
 individual, not dissimilar to that which the Divine Wisdom 
 adopted, when, in the early youth of mankind, he gave them 
 from the holy mount, his law written on tables of stone. That 
 law was a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. It was the 
 preparatory means for the higher and more spiritual cultiva- 
 tion under the Gospel of the Redeemer. And though it was 
 confessedly rudimentary and incomplete, since Christ himself 
 declared he caxne to fulfil it, was it therefore, I ask, ill-suited 
 to the times ? was it not infinitely well adapted to them and to 
 the way-preparing of the heaven-descended feet ? Had there 
 been no such law, where would have been the Christianization 
 of the world ? In like manner, if the law written in their 
 hearts, be drawn out and denoted in letters legible to the 
 young — denoting those moral good things, which were com- 
 manded because they were good immutably and eternally, 
 and not made good by their being commanded — denoting 
 those things morally evil, which were prohibited because 
 they are evil immutably and eternally, and have not become 
 evil because prohibited — if this law is drawn out into the 
 light of their reason, and amplified to them ; if it be made 
 manifest to them as a guide and a rule, to which, in accord- 
 ance with a primordial law of our nature, they, will turn for 
 safety as naturally as the child turns to its mother's breast for 
 its sustentation (for that is the tendency of the little good 
 that is in man, however opposite may be the great wickedness 
 ftnd savageness that are in him,) then, I say, we institute for 
 the youth of the individual a process similar to that which 
 the law, given by the hands of JMoses, commenced for some 
 of the early tribes of mankind — that is to say, we are the 
 school masters to bring them to Christ — prepare them for the 
 blessed truths which they are to be taught by the Church in 
 tJae kingdom of God. 
 
 I am aware that in many schools it is customary to use 
 
23 
 
 the Sacred Scriptures as a sort of text-book ; and perhaps 
 those who have authority to select the books to be read in 
 the schools by the children, suppose they thereby fulfil all 
 the duty which the possession of this authority involves. I 
 fear they think so gratis. I fear they have not sufficiently 
 reflected upon the adequacy or inadequacy of the means 
 adopted. This is a subject on which it behooves me to speak 
 with becoming diffidence, and with caution. I must, neverthe- 
 less, be explicit and distinct. I preface what I have to say 
 with this, that there is no religious agency here, vnth. which 
 I am acquainted, and which the well-understanding men o^ 
 this city or country prosecute for a purely moral and religious 
 end, that I do not tolerate and heartily pray may be success- 
 ful. I neither desire their being excluded nor superseded, 
 but assert notwithstanding, that they cannot cover the ground 
 which they ought to cover ; and there is a vast and howling 
 wilderness into which they never penetrate, that may be 
 pioneered and at least partially cultivjited, by another agency 
 which they do not recognize. With regard to the use of the 
 Holy Scriptures as a text-book for religious instruction, I say 
 nothing. The doctrines therein contained and deemed proper 
 to be taught to the young, most Christian Churches have 
 thought it necessary to formulate in short summaries or 
 catechisms ; this is a significant fact. But it is the moral 
 element that more immediately concerns u , and for this kind 
 of instruction it does not very manifestly appear that the Holy 
 Scriptures are a particularly suitable instrument. The moral 
 precepts of the Holy Scriptures are not stated in a systematic 
 form. To have any subject so stated, has many advantages 
 in teaching. It greatly assists the memory. The dependent 
 parts are more readily traced to the principle or rule, and 
 the mind is accustomed to deduce subordinate rules, which 
 are directly applicable to practice. Whether we look to the 
 second table of the undent law, or to the moral precepts of 
 the New Testament, they are too general or summary for th» 
 
24 
 
 purpose in question. This is a great disadvantage, because, 
 for purposes of instruction, they require to be folded out into 
 their many parts, and to have those parts as connectedly and 
 as clearly stated as possible. There is this also ; in the New 
 Testament, they generally transcend the stage of moral 
 growth which the young can havt attained to. They are 
 often wound up, as in the parables, among the mysteries of the 
 kingdom, and are, therefore, beyond the understanding and 
 sympathies of young persons! They are for the most part, 
 specially appropriate to that higher and more spiritual sphere 
 of morality to which it is our Lord's design that men should 
 be exalted, and ever more and more exalted in their progress 
 in the divine life ; and hence we find also, that moral pre- 
 cepts are usually given in connexion with doctrines which 
 the young cannot be supposed to have any adequate notion 
 of, such as the doctrine of the mortification of the flesh, and 
 that of a spiritual regeneration. It is clear, I think, that the 
 moral precepts and parables of the Holy Scriptures would 
 require explanations more subtle or refined than would be 
 readily comprehended, or indeed likely to be given in the 
 common schools. 
 
 In illustration of the views I have now given on these 
 pomts, I might cite t,he whole of the moral truths stated in the 
 Holy Scriptures, and they are not so numerous (being mostly 
 of a general nature) as might at first be supposed. Still they 
 are too numerous for citation, and I can only say that the 
 foregoing deductions are made from a careful examination of 
 them all. 
 
 There is another consideration, which I think not unde- 
 serving of being noticed here. In the absence of all direct 
 and independent moral teaching, and when the Bible only is 
 used, the belief is often generated and held through all the 
 after existence, that moral truths have no other foundation 
 than the authority which they derive from the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. It is a matter of common observation, that there is 
 
25 
 
 much in the current literature of the age ; much in the spirit 
 of scientific enquiry, that often rushes to unverified conclu- 
 sions ; much in the popular expression of opinions, striking at 
 the foundation of widely spread and deeply laid beliefs, and 
 these emanating alas ! even from high places — pure in inten- 
 tion, as I am bound in Christian charity to believe, but by no 
 means innocent in consideration of the results. — I say there is 
 much in all these to awaken a disastrous scepticism, the perni- 
 ciousness of which, I suppose, no one can estimate. Hence, 
 especially in the present generation, there may be many 
 individuals who, without opportunity of investigating the 
 claims of the Holy Scriptures upon our belief, or without 
 inclination to abstract themselves from the secular activities 
 of daily life to do so, receive into the unguarded heart, 
 without corrupt purpose or malice prepense, thoughts of a 
 sceptical naturo. They may be seldom expressed ; theu* 
 pernicious efiects may be little apparent in those cases 
 in which the individuals are hedged about by the cus- 
 tomary laws of society, and the many influences favourable 
 to correctness of conduct. Pernicious indeed such thoughts 
 must be even to them ; but what must they be to the ruder 
 natures ? They must be fatal. They must bring down 
 into the dust not only their religious beliefs and feelings 
 but their moral consciousness also; every foundation must 
 give way, and the ruin be complete ; no duty, no virtue 
 can have any sanctity then ; no crime have any check, 
 but its inconvenience or punishment. Now, leaving out the 
 cases of moral idiots (for there are moral idiots as there 
 are intellectual), no one, whose moral nature has been 
 instructed and cultivated when young, could possibly be an 
 example of this moral degradation. He could no more 
 eradicate his trust in the validity of the moral truths he 
 received, than he could eradicate his trust in the certainty of 
 the intellectual truths of arithmetic, which he had received, 
 ^hey remain imperishable. The man could never excom- 
 
26 
 
 municate himself from his own nature ; and why ? Why ? 
 because then it is his nature, and because it has been made 
 to grow 80 far, in obedience to the voice of his Creator. All 
 that I desire to maintain is this, that it is possible and the 
 duty of some, to lay in the hearts of the youth at school, 
 such a substratum of moral culture and knowledge of moral 
 truths, as will remain impregnable, and at all events operate 
 beneficially ever afterwards ; and this is only a recognition 
 of the ancient and received truth, " Train up a child in the 
 way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart 
 from it." 
 
 The institution of Sunday Schools does not supersede or 
 render unnecessary what is proposed to be done. Even on 
 the supposition that practical morality were taught in the 
 Sunday Schools, in the most unexceptionable form, of what 
 use is one hour one day of the week for such a purpose, 
 even if given to that subject only. It may be decided at 
 once, that Sunday Schools want the suitable time for the 
 expansion which it requires to make it of any value. It could 
 be handled only in a very general and desultory manner; 
 nor, generally speaking, are the teachers in the Sunday 
 Schools those who would be likely to undertake it, or carry 
 it out successfully. Notwithstanding, great and manifold 
 are the benefits that have resulted to the young from that 
 institution ; let it remain perpetual and be accepted, as I 
 believe it is, a kind of moral and religious agency, by which 
 an extraordinary amount of good has been done. Only, as 
 perhaps I may be allowed to say, great care ought to be 
 taken in conveying to a child an impression or idea of Divine 
 Grace not to silence or make vain the internal voice that 
 ghames him and makes him uneasy on the commission of 
 wrong-doing. There must have been some religious indeli- 
 cacy particularly objectionable in the religious instruction 
 ^iven to the child who, v/hen detected in a lie and trick 
 of roguery, could silence his remonstrant grandmamma 
 
27 
 
 with a line of his hymn — " But Jesus pardons all my sins."^ 
 That child was a postulant for liberty to do evil. 
 
 I clearly foresee that the chief diflSculty to the reception 
 of the plan which I propose, will be the persuasion, that the 
 teaching of practical morality, apart from the speciaUties of 
 revealed religion, will be ineffectual or nugatory. In a 
 pamphlet published in 1856, by one who denominates himself 
 " An American Clergyman," the object of which is to point 
 out the utter futility as to moral results, and even the positive 
 mischief of the adopted common school system, I find the fol- 
 lowing assertions: " Those who in former years were zealous 
 in maturing our common school system, are beginning to open 
 their eyes, and stand aghast at their own work. Instead of 
 being convinced that their system has been attended with an 
 increase of public virtue, they seem to be painfully conscious 
 that in divorcing daily education from daUy religion, they have 
 been creating a keen, savage, remorseless monster of depravity, 
 that is already lifting its head in terror over the land." The 
 writer then proceeds to adduce, in coroboration of his views, the 
 decided judgment of judges, of professors of Universities, and 
 persons eminent for their piety, intelligence, and patriotism, 
 concurring in the deep conviction that the common schools, 
 *' instead of cherishing lambs, are training up wolves" whose 
 appetites are only sharpened by the additional prey which 
 increased knowledge brings into the range of their vision. 
 Hear his conclusion : " Every criminal of the next generation 
 will plead before the bar of God against us, for not having 
 provided for him an early training better calculated to restrain 
 him from vice. Why not do it at once, before we see our 
 land overrun by a horde of Goths and Vandals, generated 
 in the bosom of our boasted civilization ; before we see our 
 nation forfeiting the very name of Christian ; before we 
 behold our RepubUcan institutions — the glorious heritage 
 purchased by the blood of our fathers trodden to the 
 .dust, by the turbulence of factions and unchristianized 
 
28 
 
 •millions." This individual expresses his perfect willingness 
 that every Christian denomination should have in the com- 
 mon schools, under their several jurisdictions, full liberty to 
 give moral and religious instruction. It is clear however, 
 that supposing them to have had that liberty, and to have 
 used it, they would not have given the moral, whatever they 
 may have done with respect to the religious, discipline. They 
 would not have given the moral in the way I propose, and in 
 the only way it may be expected to produce the desired 
 effect. His view of moral discipline or instruction, which I 
 suppose to be a common yiew, is, in my opinion, entirely 
 erroneous. He says : " It is said that moral precepts can be 
 inculcated in our schools. But what are precepts without 
 the sanction of religion ? What are mere prudential rules 
 before the gusts of passion, or when assailed by strong 
 temptation ? What is sand before the ocean billows ? What 
 is chaff before the tempest ?" I entirely dissent from the con- 
 clusion implied in his interrogatories. Might it not be asked 
 even of religious precepts under the supposed conditions — 
 What are they, generally speaking, but chaff before the 
 tempest ? Are there not conditions in which they are only as 
 the sand before the ocean billow ? The grounds of my con- 
 fidence in the efficacy of the contrary opinion, have already 
 been intimated with more or less explicitness. They are sum- 
 marily these : 
 
 1st. The intuitional character of our moral perceptions is a 
 fact which, of itself, carries with it the proof that, in a rational 
 agent, the moral nature is susceptible of cultivation. They 
 have an emotional as well as an intellectual side. There is, 
 always in moral subjects, some proportion between exactness 
 of obedience and completeness of knowledge — some natural 
 vicinity between truth and goodness. 
 
 2nd. As a matter of experience, the efficacy of moral dis- 
 cipline and instruction might be evinced. It might be evinced 
 by a reference to instances innumerable, in which no aid 
 could have been received from Divine Revelation. 
 
29 
 
 3rd. It might be evinced by a reference to the recorded 
 opinions of the most competent judges in past ages and in the 
 present. 
 
 4th. It might be evinced by an appeal to the common sense 
 of mankind, in different ages and countries, and even to all 
 known languages, by whicl? nen have endeavoured to appeal 
 to the moral consciousness of their fellow-creatures, for tjie 
 purpose of deepening their feeling of moral obligation and 
 rendering their judgment more discriminating. 
 
 5th. There is yet another point which might be adduced, 
 closely relative to these : no moral discipline and teaching 
 per se could, in the present state of things, be absolutely 
 separated from the Religious element. There is no chasm 
 between the sense of duty and the recognition of God. No 
 sooner does a human soul feel itself under a moral law, than 
 it concludes almost instantaneously that God is the author of 
 it ; so that, over the whole sphere of duty there is drawn the 
 solemnity and awfulness that are inspired by the presence of 
 the Great Eye that never slumbers nor sleeps. Hence it is 
 that, after all, there is practically an inseparable connexion 
 between the moral and religious consciousness, however imper- 
 fectly the religious element may be developed, for God never 
 leaves himself without a witness. 
 
 Much might be said on this subject, and much also on the 
 fact, that there are thousands of individuals sincerely desirous 
 of acting rightly or conscientiously, whose immoral acts are 
 to be ascribed to ignorance or error. Unprepared, utterly 
 unprepared in many cases, for distinguishing clearly the 
 path of duty among the complicated courses of action in the 
 nudst of which they find themselves, and which necessarily 
 result from the complex forms of civilized life, they fail, and, 
 instead of doing the good they really desire to do, often inflict 
 permanent and irreparable ryils on the society which they 
 influence. This is especially the case in regard to duties of 
 a public description. How little are the magistrates of a 
 
80 
 
 country supported and aided by the jural or moral sentiments 
 of the people generally. How often do the verdicts of juries 
 astound one with the conviction that their pathological sym" 
 pathies are with the criminal, their moral sympathies not 
 with the law. How little horror is excited by the atrocious 
 crime of perjury, and how little are the frightful consequences 
 of its prevalence realized. When a whole community repu- 
 diates its just debts, the gigantic sin excites no apprehension ; 
 the very magnitude of it seems to alter its nature. 
 
 There are multitudes of good, and good-meaning men, 
 who seem to have the conviction that the material progress 
 of the country is the whole contents of national prosperity — 
 increased immigration, new markets for produce, increased 
 commercial faciUties of communication, development of the 
 physical sources of wealth — as if all these good things would 
 not soon collapse in confusion, without security of life and 
 property — as if every one to whom the history of man is not 
 a dead letter, did not know perfectly well that, unless the 
 beliefs and moral sentiments of the people are energetically 
 directed to the support of public order and influenced with 
 the deepest veneration for its main instruments, the solem- 
 nities of religion and the scarcely less sacred laws that define 
 and protect the rights of men among men, our brilliant pros- 
 pects are, and can be, nothing but a paradise of fools. 
 Without the walls of the churches, what is the universal cry? 
 Material progress, material success, — these are the thmgs ; 
 for the.-! ' is the strong and perpetual cry : Who will show us 
 any good ? What we really need is the common love of public 
 order, the strong persuasion of the duty of it, and the constant 
 and persevering demand for it. Truly, the principle of free- 
 dom flourishes sufficiently here ; but the fatal mischief is, 
 that the principle of order languishes. Surely no martyrs 
 for freedom are needed and probably never will h€ needed 
 until that time arrive, which may God in his mercy avert, 
 when moral evil having done its worst, a social state resultSj 
 
81 
 
 as, alaa ! we see it sometimes does, similar in the body politic 
 before its salvation, to that which an old poet holds necessary 
 for the individual — 
 
 " For no just man in heaven can dwell" 
 " Until he first have passed through hell." 
 
 It is a very remarkable thing to hear good and sen- 
 sible men, in the present circumstances of" the country, 
 speaking and writing eloquently in praise of freedom, when 
 they have occasion to speak to others the truth, which to 
 others is due. It is a thing which might draw tears from the 
 blessed angels, if they, coming to the gates of heaven, could 
 hear what is spoken in these parts of the earth. Why is it 
 that nothing almost is spoken in behalf of order ? Can free- 
 dom continue that has not order for its basis ? Have we 
 not freedom to our heart's content? What more freedom 
 can we desire, unless it be freedom to rob or to cut one 
 another's throats ? It is so perfectly absurd f It forces one 
 to imagine an .^sopian fable like this : " Once upon a time, a 
 dispute having arisen among the tame beasts of the earth, as 
 to the wisdom of continuing to be governed by the laws and 
 customs under which they had lived time immemorial, it was 
 agreed to have the subject discussed in a convention of all, tame 
 and wild together. The convention is summoned ; all are as- 
 sembled ; and some of the graver of the tame were endeavour- 
 ing, to recommend the ancient rules of order for the preserva- 
 tion and good guidance of the whole, when they were inter- 
 rupted by the asses. The asses lifted up the thunders of their 
 voice, and brayed so long and so loudly in eulogy of the prin- 
 ciple of freedom, that the wild ones, excited by a theme so 
 congenial to their instincts, sprang out upon the tame, and 
 devoured them all, including the long-eared members of the 
 convention themselves." 
 
 He who, i^ his measures for the public well-being, should 
 omit the consideratioiiidiut; to; the. S^c'rintilral dootri^e of human 
 corruption, builds on a^ foundation' ac baseleis as .smoke. He 
 
82 
 
 who overlooks, in human nature, its power to recognize an 
 immutable and eternal morality, would construct only an 
 absolute despotism, where external force and authority would 
 be the sole instruments of obedience. With us, to overlook 
 this moral power must be a fatal blunder. If the idea of 
 patriotism is not a delusion ; if the love of man, as man, is an 
 affection that can dwell in human hearts ; if we have the 
 consciousness of a duty that we owe to the Blessed Being, 
 whom men call God, it is in this direction that our efforts 
 must be turned, and turned to the young, interweaving into 
 their daily Ufe the golden threads of moral truth, that they 
 may be guided and governed in the path of duty, — enriched 
 and prepared for the love of God in Christ. 
 
 I * « 
 
 
 • •