■'•n'J 
 
 
 
 C»F 
 
 <J\/Liclmd Ernest Sadler^ 
 
 njmversitu Colleqe-^ 
 
 Oxford, 
 
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 BPRlCeL E Y 
 
 tIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 pl'fORNlA 
 

 A DIALOGUE ON 
 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2008 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/dialogueonmoraleOOmattrich 
 
A DIALOGUE ON 
 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 By F^'h. MATTHEWS M.A 
 
 HEAD MASTER OF BOLTON GRAMMAR SCHOOL 
 
 AND FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF 
 
 C.C.C. OXON 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO Lim 
 
 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 
BUTLKR & TaNNHR, 
 
 The Selwood Printing Works, 
 Frome, and London. 
 
 SJ 
 
 

 AMID-TEBM holiday is a cliance that a schoolmaster 
 dare not despise. On one of them I had arranged 
 to take a long country walk, accompanied by a doctor 
 friend, both of us glad to be able for the nonce to shake 
 off the cares of work and to reinvigorate ourselves, by 
 drinking the fresh country breezes round us, for renewal 
 of work on the morrow. We proposed to get rid of the 
 smoke of our busy town by training it out to such a 
 distance as would land us in the open country without 
 fear of interruption, and were making preparations for the 
 start when my neighbour, Reynolds, a clergyman, hap- 
 pened to drop in to borrow a book. Reynolds and I were 
 very good friends, though our views were in many points 
 most divergent ; but divergence of views I have often 
 found to be a strong bond of union among thinking men 
 who are keen, as we both were, on argumentation, and 
 alive to the fact that the last has scarcely been said on 
 any subject of human speculation. Hearing that we pui'- 
 posed to escape " the smoke and stir of that dim spot 
 which men call " Workton, but we in more familiar 
 terms — though we breathe it not to others, the natives of 
 the town — Smoke-i'-th'-Hole-cum-Filthton, Reynolds asked 
 if he might join us, to which we gladly said yes. As he 
 was well up in the district for many miles round, and 
 was besides an excellent topographer and archaeologist, I 
 in particular was delighted ; for I have a strong predi- 
 lection for losing my way on the very least provocation — 
 my friends are rude enough to say on none at all — and as 
 Hindley had not been very long in the town, and during 
 that time had been too busy with arranging his new 
 practice to be able to make explorations, or even to study 
 the maps of the district through which we proposed to 
 tramp, the duties of organizer fell upon me, or rather 
 
 iw8766G6 
 
2 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 would SO have fallen had it not been for the opportune 
 intervention of Reynolds, on to whose shoulders I gladly 
 threw the, to me, unwelcome burden. 
 
 " I know you like it, so I will make no apologies ; and 
 if Hindley says, as he probably will, that it is most im- 
 moral and cowardly to back out of my undertaking in so 
 brazenfaced a way, well, in the first place I do not care, 
 as my education, I fear, was not sufficiently exalted to 
 make me adopt the high tone in which he delights ; in the 
 second place, should he persist in his sermonizing and re- 
 proaches, you just leave, at the most ticklish point, the 
 conduct of the walk to me, and I can assure you that, 
 with the noblest intentions and the clearest map before 
 me, I will lead him astray so far that he will not succeed 
 in reaching home to-night, and then all those new patients 
 to whom his court is so assiduous will have nothing more 
 to do with him, because he has failed to pay the old ladies 
 his due regulation visit at the expected time. So be care- 
 ful, Hindley ; no lecturing as you value your practice." 
 
 Hindley laughed and said : 
 
 *' All right, I know you of old, that you are quite in- 
 corrigible; and whatever my sentiments may be about 
 your natural laziness, I will suppress them till a con- 
 venient season, when I promise you they shall be delivered 
 with all the expansive vigour which is generated by long 
 bottling and good fermentation." 
 
 Reynolds for his part made no objection — very far from 
 it ; so off we started, and were soon landed in the train, 
 wishing it would go a little faster and not waste so much 
 of the valuable day. We had before us a long programme 
 — to strike across country, by field as much as possible, 
 over a mountain called High Fell, to descend the other 
 side of it, mount a second height. Black Ridge, then stop 
 at a little village for tea, and in the cooler part of the 
 evening to trace the windings of the beautiful and wooded 
 valley-road which led to the town of Windicombe, whence 
 train was to see us home. Reynolds and I both knew the 
 route, indeed Reynolds first introduced me to it ; but to 
 Hindley, who was a stranger from the level flats of the 
 eastern counties, it seemed a true revelation, and though 
 he was not given to violent expression of his emotions, 
 I could tell by his look, and the occasional remarks he 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 3 
 
 dropped, that he was enjoying it thoroughly. Perhaps I 
 was wrong to say that he was not given to violent ex- 
 pression of his emotions ; he certainly was given to violent 
 expression of something very nearly akin to his emotions 
 when his ideals were in any way touched. To tell the 
 truth, I was rather hoping that I might be able to trot 
 him out for the benefit of Reynolds, who had not as yet 
 come to know him very well, but I was going to wait my 
 chance ; for I knew from old experience that when the 
 conversation turned upon any social topic, as it invariably 
 did with both of my companions, I should be sure to 
 tread on Hindley's corns, who, though reluctant to confess 
 it, was at heart a real Socialist. The chance, however, 
 came much sooner than I expected ; for, after we had gone 
 some three or four miles, we came within sight of a well- 
 known Roman Catholic College, about which I made use 
 of a rather strong expression. Hindley at once pulled me 
 up. 
 
 " You have no right to say that ; I do not believe that 
 any one — still less any body of men — is an utter hypo- 
 crite." 
 
 " No, I plead guilty ; but I cannot get rid of the feeling 
 that the directors of the system are aware of its glaring 
 faults— at least, if they aren't they ought to be — and 
 make no attempt to alter them, because they find the 
 duping system better." 
 
 "There you are; even in your apology you beg the 
 whole question. Why should they be aware of the 
 glaring faults, as you please to call them ? " 
 
 " How can any man of sense not be ? " 
 
 " My good Trelawney, what is a man of sense ? One 
 who agrees with you, I suppose. But may I ask — you 
 will forgive the question — if you are aware of your own 
 glaring faults, whether personal, or in your system of 
 education ? " 
 
 " Well, I have a suspicion of some perhaps, but " 
 
 " But you are not sure ? Well, why don't you ask 
 some particular friend to tell you quite candidly what 
 they are, and amend them ? " 
 
 " A friend I could not get to do it." 
 
 " Well, an enemy then." 
 
 " I'm afraid I haven't the moral courage." 
 
4 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " Precisely ; nor probably have tbe Jesuits. The fact is 
 you are the slave, partly of inherited, and, if I may coin a 
 word, ineducated prejudices ; partly perhaps — who knows ? 
 — of professional jealousy. Two of a trade never agree, 
 and you probably are conscious only too much of the great- 
 ness of the work the Jesuits have done, and of the marked 
 superiority of their closely-reasoned system over the sys- 
 tem which is traditional in most of our schools, and of 
 which you are now a professional exponent, to be able to 
 judge in the question quite dispassionately." 
 
 "I think you are rather hard on Trelawney," said 
 Reynolds. *' I know he is alive, at all events, to some 
 defects in our every-day round of working education, and 
 tries his best to remedy them ; but Rome, you know, was 
 not built in a day, and education will hardly be perfected 
 just yet." 
 
 " Oh," ejaculated Hindley, " I have known Trelawney 
 long enough to be quite assured that he would not con- 
 sciously reject anything that he recognised as better. I 
 only say he is not in a position fairly to judge what is 
 "better." 
 
 " Who is then ? "Would you dethrone the specialist ? " 
 
 " Most assuredly. The proper person to judge is an 
 outsider, before whom the specialists should plead." 
 
 "Well, there," I intervened, *'I think I agree with 
 you, so long as it is not education that is in question." 
 
 At this my two friends burst into a hearty laugh, in 
 which I joined, adding : 
 
 " I knew you would laugh ; but, after all, I am afraid 
 that is the position which, if pressed, I should finally 
 have to confess that I believed in my heart of hearts to 
 be the only tenable one, at least on education. And yet 
 I have known officers in the merchant service object 
 most strongly to the naval courts, on the ground that 
 experts ought to be the judges, even while admitting that 
 non-professional judges, helped only by special assessors 
 and pleaders, constituted a system which worked well in 
 every case save where their own business was concerned. 
 I was greatly amused at the time, and now here I am 
 doing exactly the same thing ! " 
 
 *' Never mind, old fellow, we doctors are more conserv^a- 
 tive than any one else when our own interests are attacked ; 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 5 
 
 and as for taking lay opinion on a point of medical proce- 
 dure or jurisprudence, why, I think if it were to be 
 seriously suggested, the whole faculty would die in a fit." 
 
 '' Dear me ! what a terrible reflection on poor human 
 nature ! " — this from Reynolds. *' Is there no one who 
 has boldness and honesty enough to entirely cast away 
 his prejudices ? " 
 
 " I am afraid it is very difficult to find any one, and I 
 certainly am not that being. Trelawney knows how often 
 he has tried to convince me that I have a fatal twist in 
 judging of social matters, and how little he has succeeded 
 in altering my views, though I admit there is probably 
 something to be said for his statements." 
 
 '' Probably !— thank you," I replied. " It is the first 
 time you have ever gone even so far as that." 
 
 ^' Oh, don't be alarmed ; I made the admission for 
 Beynolds's benefit, not yours. Please look upon yourself 
 as an eavesdropper. So far as you are concerned, the re- 
 mark is unsaid." 
 
 " Well now, what is the good of arguing with a fellow 
 like this ? " I said, turning to Reynolds. " You had 
 better discuss with him, I'm sure I can't." 
 
 " I have been wanting," Reynolds said, " to find out 
 what points in the Jesuit system Dr. Hindley considers so 
 worthy of admiration. Of course," he added, addressing 
 Hindley directly, " you will remember I am a clergyman 
 of the Church of England." 
 
 '' And therefore a biassed and incompetent judge, though 
 doubtless you think yourself specially qualified to express 
 an opinion. Well, my support of the Jesuits depends 
 practically on two things : first, they have reasoned out a 
 system of education and stick to it ; secondly, to them the 
 prime point is morality." 
 
 At this remark both Reynolds and I opened fire, but I 
 managed to get the lead, and said, that I admitted they 
 had much to teach us in the matter of organization ; but 
 as for their moral training, I did not believe in it. How- 
 ever, as I saw that Reynolds was boiling over, I left off 
 abruptly, and so gave free opening to the torrent that 
 straightway came. 
 
 " Moral education, indeed ! A system of spying and 
 mistrust ! Never a moment of freedom for the boy, never 
 
6 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 an act that is not watched and construed into the worst 
 possible interpretation ! Don't tell me that such a sys- 
 tem can beget good results. Nothing but trust can lead 
 to trustworthiness, and trust is the one feature which, if 
 I read aright, is absolutely wanting to the Jesuit system. 
 Of all things I hate hjrpocrisy, and hypocrisy is of Jesuit- 
 ism the very keynote." 
 
 The Doctor looked amused and said, — 
 
 " I knew I should awake a lion. But, prejudice apart, 
 don't you think there is something to be said for their 
 view ? Your Church also teaches the natural depravity 
 of man." 
 
 " That is quite a different thing," ejaculated Reynolds. 
 
 " And I am sure," went on Hindley, without noticing 
 the interruption, " that every schoolmaster " — looking at 
 me — *' will admit the truth of the indictment." 
 
 " Not at all," I rejoined ; " it is a gross lie to say that 
 the propensity of a child is by nature to evil rather 
 than to good. The proper view to take is that children 
 are, in inverse proportion to their years, non-moral beings ; 
 they do not know the difference between right and wrong, 
 and are as well prepared to follow the one line as the 
 other — of course with exceptions — if only the attractions 
 can be made equal." 
 
 " Precisely ; and that is exactly why I so much 
 admire the Jesuits. They act upon the principle that 
 children require to be instructed in morals as much as in 
 lesser matters, and make accordingly a genuine effort to 
 lay a solid foundation of morality. With all due respect 
 to Mr. Reynolds, I think he has been trailing a red 
 herring across the scent. I never said that I admired 
 whatever the Jesuits did ; my admiration is directed to 
 the attempt they make to tackle one of the most difficult 
 and important questions in the world, though I have my 
 own opinion as to their methods and results. You must 
 remember, too, that their system has been at work for 
 some centuries, and was started at a time when public 
 opinion held far more than at present that the end can 
 justify any means whatever." 
 
 " Then what you mean is that you admire them for 
 recognising that morality should be the aim of all educa- 
 tion — a point which most other educational bodies, despite 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 7 
 
 their own and the theorists' assertion of its vital nature, 
 have in practice disregarded ; and you pass no sentence at 
 all upon their method of attempting to correct the de- 
 fect ? " 
 
 " Precisely." 
 
 " Oh, well, of course there I agree with you, and I do 
 not suppose even Mr. Reynolds will fall foul of you any 
 more." 
 
 '' No, not till I hear some other opinion equally objec- 
 tionable to rouse all my prej — no, they are not preju- 
 dices — my knowledge of what is right." 
 
 Neither Dr. Hindley nor I could altogether repress a 
 smile, but we made no comment, and walked on for a few 
 minutes in silence. At last I said, — 
 
 " But it really is a serious question, this of moral 
 education ; and I should be glad to know if you have any 
 ideas on the subject. It is one on which I have thought 
 a great deal, and read everything on which I could lay 
 my hands — which, after all, considering the great bulk of 
 educational literature from Plato downwards, is not 
 much — yet my mind remains in absolute chaos. I wish 
 some one would bring it into order." 
 
 "Let me recommend you to consider the Americans. 
 They are perhaps at present the most go-ahead nation in 
 educational matters — certainly they are the boldest in 
 trying experiments ; and they are beginning to tackle the 
 problem in question in a notable manner. Have you read 
 a recent book by Professor Felix Adler on the moral in- 
 struction of children ? " 
 
 " Yes ; and I found it very interesting and suggestive : 
 but " 
 
 " But what ? " 
 
 " It is only instruction, not education ; and that is the 
 more important matter." 
 
 ** True ; but you remember he promises to tackle the 
 larger question by-and-bye." 
 
 " Yes ; but meantime we grovel in the dark. Still, I 
 admit the book has been an enormous help to me, and that 
 instruction must, if not precede, at all events run along- 
 side of education." 
 
 Here Reynolds asked: "How does he set about the 
 work ? " 
 
8 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 *' He starts," I replied, " witli stories and fairy tales — 
 tales from the Bible, tales from the poets : makes a most 
 careful and suggestive selection of those which teach 
 forcibly and directly some simple moral lesson ; and, care- 
 fully excluding every suggestion that is not in accord- 
 ance with the highest possible morality, passes to practical 
 suggestions on the matter of various duties — first of all 
 the duty that comes closest to a child at school, the duty 
 of acquiring knowledge ; and then the other duties in 
 order — duty to oneself, duty to one's friends, dutj'' to one's 
 country. Of course it seems tentative, but there is a 
 great deal to be gained from it." 
 
 " Have you ever tried to carry it out yourself ? " 
 
 " I have made half-hearted attempts, but you know, or 
 do not know, how difficult it is to be a pioneer in teaching 
 anything. But our hand is being forced by the elementary 
 and continuation schools with their instruction in civic 
 duty." 
 
 " It sounds all very nice," said Reynolds ; " but why 
 don't you leave the matter to the recognised bodies ? " 
 
 " What are they ? " the Doctor asked. 
 
 " Why, the different Churches and the clergymen." 
 
 At this Hindley pulled a long face and whistled, but, 
 after a moment, said, — 
 
 " Well, I don't want to hurt your feelings, Mr. 
 E-eynolds ; but in a discussion like this, where I feel so 
 deeply, I must speak out. Now, do you as an honest 
 man really consider that the parties you name have 
 proved so efficient in the past that there is no opening for 
 other bodies to take up the work ? " 
 
 " No, I am not prepared to maintain that ; but they are 
 undoubtedly the right people for the work." 
 
 " Well, but when they have proved inefficient ? " 
 
 " It does not follow that they will always be so." 
 
 " Granted ; but I cannot see great signs of improvement. 
 And what of the interim ? Would you have the genera- 
 tions perish for want of all food, because the purveyors of 
 the best either will not or cannot provide it ? " 
 
 Here I interposed. " It seems to me," I said, " as one 
 whose whole business is to discover the best methods of 
 imparting knowledge, that in the matter of spiritual in- 
 struction the clergy go the wrong way to work. They 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 9 
 
 preach from pulpits, where, so far from being answered, 
 they cannot even be challenged, and then expect their 
 ^congregations to develop as reasoned and lively a faith as 
 if the congregations themselves were active participators 
 in the lesson conveyed. In education we believe, perhaps 
 too fondly, that the old pouring-in method is completely 
 exploded : we have come to recognise that, if we are to do 
 any lasting good, we must get the active co-operation of 
 the pupils taught. If the clergy would pose rather as 
 spiritual guides with wider knowledge and experience on 
 ■ special subjects than their flocks, and not claim to be, as 
 often they do, authoritative and infallible exponents of a 
 zsystem in which development can find no place, exponents, 
 too, to question whose statements is heresy — if, in short, 
 like other teachers they would put feeling on one side and 
 be guided only by regard to the best methods of instruc- 
 tion, they would have far more chance of influencing the 
 most important beliefs and actions of the day, instead of, 
 which I fear is happening at present, getting more and 
 more out of touch with the spiritual desires and aspira- 
 tions of the mass. I hope, Reynolds, I am not treading 
 on your corns. I speak in all earnestness and with a 
 sincere wish to see religion take that place which ought 
 to be hers unquestioned and of right." 
 
 " No," said Reynolds, " you do not hurt me, though of 
 <50urse there are numbers of my fellow-clergymen who 
 would be shocked beyond measure at the doctrine you lay 
 •down. But I am too broad for that. However, I must 
 say that your remarks seem to me to have but little to 
 'do with the main question, which is, how best to teach 
 morality." 
 
 " On the contrar}^, they seem to me to have a great deal 
 to do with it. If you grant that the clergy of all denomina- 
 tions have failed, at all events as yet, to satisfy the demand 
 for moral education, and that the demand is one which 
 .above all should be gratified as speedily as possible, then 
 of course we have to consider what is the cause of their 
 failure and who is to take their place. Now if I am right 
 in saying that their failure is due in the main to defective 
 method, and that they are not in a position to correct that 
 'defect, which also seems to me true — w^hat do you say, 
 .Hindley?" 
 
10 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 The Doctor replied : " For my part, I think you have 
 hit the nail on the head, but I doubt ii Mr. Reynolds will 
 agree." 
 
 Rejrnolds merely shrugged his shoulders and said : 
 "Well, never mind about me. I will not discuss at 
 present the possibility of improving our methods. Go 
 on." 
 
 " Then it follows," I resumed, " that the best people to 
 take up the work are those who know something of 
 teaching-method and who, being, like clergymen, in touch 
 with large numbers, are able to produce the desired eifect 
 in quantity. And who are those people, if not," I added, 
 with a smile and a bow to my two companions, " your 
 humble servant and his compeers, the noble army of 
 schoolmasters? " 
 
 Reynolds and Hindley both laughed, and the latter 
 said : — 
 
 " Well, Trelawney, at all events you are not bashful nor 
 cursed with too mean an opinion of your own importance. 
 But, soberly, I agree almost entirely with what you say, 
 other things, of course, such as personal influence and 
 character, being equal." 
 
 " Of course, of course," I replied ; " that must always 
 be granted in an abstract discussion. But I should like 
 to add one other point in favour of schoolmasters making 
 moral education a regular part of their week's work, and 
 it is this : they are, if worth their salt, regarded with a 
 reverence — I may almost say worship — which is felt by 
 the young for perhaps no one else, unless it be their 
 parents, and then, alas ! I fear by no means always. This 
 half-worship which children often show towards their 
 masters, and still more perhaps towards their mistresses, 
 is a coign of vantage from which great work might be 
 done. No one else seems to be in so favourable a position, 
 unless we except in some cases the parents." 
 
 " Ah," said Reynolds, " I have been wondering how 
 long the parents were to be left out of the discussion. It 
 is all nonsense talking about school giving the chief part 
 of moral education. Home and the Church are the proper 
 places." 
 
 . " That's all very fine," interposed Dr. Hindley, " but 
 what about them when inefficient ? It seems to me you 
 
MORAL EDUCATION II 
 
 will not face the real point. The Church is notoriously 
 inefficient " 
 
 Reynolds here interrupted coldly : " Of course, if you 
 level insults at all that I hold most sacred, I can discuss 
 nothing." 
 
 I saw we were getting on dangerous ground and was 
 going to interpose in the interests of peace, but Hindley 
 was before me. 
 
 " No, no, hang it all ! I didn't mean to insult you ; but 
 I am rather a peppery fellow, and when I see notorious in- 
 
 compet No, bother ! I will apologize once for all and 
 
 hav6 done with it. You must forgive me when my tongue 
 runs away with me : I am afraid my own moral training 
 never taught me to control myself. But you will at least 
 allow me to start from this position — that the Church, for 
 whatever reason, has not succeeded in satisfactorily cover- 
 ing the whole field." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Well, all I propose is that it should be a recognised 
 duty of our educators to supplement, if you will have it 
 so, the teaching of our spiritual masters, bringing their 
 high doctrines down to every-day life and the under- 
 standing of children. You surely cannot object to helpers 
 in your work." 
 
 " There are professing helpers who are worse than foes. 
 It all depends upon the attitude the helpers take up. How 
 are you going to teach morality ? Either religion must be 
 its base or it must be left out of consideration. In the 
 former case, I repeat the proper instructors are the clergy ; 
 in the latter, more harm will result than good." 
 
 " Ah, now," said Hindley, " we are getting to business. 
 So morality is either a branch of religion pure and simple, 
 or it is a deadly enemy to it. Is that your position ? " 
 
 " You have put it rather strongly." 
 
 " Strong statements are best : you know exactly what 
 is meant. I hate a man who never talks of a lie, but al- 
 ways of an untruth or a falsehood. Bah ! They make me 
 shiver, milk-and-water creatures ! However, that is 
 neither here nor there at present. But let us just look at 
 your two positions. As to the first, I am at one with you 
 in holding that morality must ultimately be the handmaid 
 of religion, — and by religion I do not most emphatically 
 
12 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 mean theology, — but it does seem to me odd tliat you 
 should be so jealous of any one else helping you in the 
 work. It really looks as if you thought your influence 
 were not securely enough grounded, and that every one 
 except yourselves was your enemy. That I should be 
 most loth to believe. I do think, and I repeat, that the 
 clergy have in many ways fallen short, I do not say of 
 what they could have done, — I am not judging their respon- 
 sibility, — but of what we want, and if that is granted, it is 
 surely desirable that other agencies should assist. Now 
 those other agencies are ex hypothesi not religious. I 
 mean they are non-religious — religion does not enter into 
 the question at present. The religious teachers have been 
 found unable to cope with the work and others come to 
 help. Now you say that all teachers, so far as they are 
 teachers of morality, must be religious workers, workers 
 directly for religion ? Yes ? Well, how do you meet the 
 difficulty — to start with an outside one — of the dijBferent 
 religious sects and their divergent views ? " 
 " Isn't that more theology than religion ? " 
 " Ah, you are cunning. I might have raised that reply, 
 but I hardly thought you would. Granted that it is ; still, 
 to the average mind, the two are inseparably mixed, and 
 you will never get an ordinary parent to believe that in 
 entrusting religious education to one of a creed that is not 
 his own he is not entrusting his child's theology, and not 
 merely those points of his child's beliefs in which all 
 Christians practically agree. Ah ! how wild it makes me 
 that all the fuss about so-called religion is mostly a fight- 
 ing about mere theology, wherein the true interests and 
 aims of religion properly so called are not merely over- 
 looked but actually impaired ! But that again is neither 
 here nor there. At present you will grant that theology 
 and religion are inseparably mixed, more's the pity, and 
 when a parent cries out that his child's religion is in 
 danger, he mostly means nothing but his theology. Hence 
 your reply will not overcome the objection. If moral 
 training is to be confined to religious teachers only, does 
 not that position imply that you believe in different 
 morality in the different religious sects ? " 
 
 " Not necessarily. It only means that I still maintain 
 that religion and morality are so inseparably intertwined, 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 3 
 
 and, from the practical side, in the world at present re- 
 ligion and theology are likewise so inseparably inter- 
 twined, that in handing over the teaching of morality to 
 laymen you will, whether you mean and wish it or no, in- 
 evitably be handing over the teaching of religion too." 
 
 '' Well, but, in the first place, I suppose, you would 
 allow parents to have something to say in the matter of 
 religious education ; and in the second, if you admit, as 
 you seem to, that religion and theology are two separate 
 things, and that theology is of comparatively little im- 
 portance " 
 
 " I hope I never said that." 
 
 *' But don't you imply it when you raise as an answer 
 to my difficulty the fact that the difference between the 
 different religious sects is chiefly a difference of theology, 
 and therefore can be disregarded ? " 
 
 " I don't think I ever said that." 
 
 " But you certainly seemed to imply it. What did you 
 think, Trelawney ? '' 
 
 •• I must confess," I replied, " that Eeynolds's words 
 seemed to carry the implication." 
 
 ^' Yes, I certainly took your meaning to be that it was 
 no fair objection to leaving moral education entirely to 
 the clergy that our schools of clergy are so divergent in 
 their views." 
 
 " I certainly do not think it an insuperable difficulty, 
 because no sensible man would deny that after all the 
 main difference between the different sects is one either of 
 discipline and procedure, or of such points of doctrine as 
 among Christians — putting on one side perhaps the Roman 
 Catholics — do not produce marked differences in actual 
 practice. But I am aware that many think that the 
 difference of belief is cardinal, though personally I do not 
 share that view." 
 
 " Well, then I may take it for granted that for ordinary 
 practical purposes you would place all religious sects on 
 an equality in the matter of morality ? " 
 
 " I would not say that absolutely : for instance, as I 
 have already made clear, I have the strongest objection to 
 the Church of Rome in regard to much of her actual in- 
 culcation of morality." 
 
 "Yes, but the cases of divergence are comparatively few." 
 
14 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 '* But any divergence at all upsets your position, which 
 is, I take it, that there is such a common agreement on 
 the points of morality that it does not require any special 
 teachers to give the training in the subject required." 
 
 " If you understand by special, subordinating moral 
 teaching to the attainments of other ends, that is my 
 position, and I certainly do not feel that it is stormed by 
 the objection that there is some divergence. In consider- 
 ing in the abstract any question whatever we are obliged 
 to take the average of cases, or I should say the great 
 majority, and legislate accordingly." 
 
 Here I interposed and said : " It seems to me we are 
 rather wasting time. I sympathize with Reynolds's posi- 
 tion very much, though I am a layman and certainly 
 eclectic in my Church views : for I feel that in the long 
 run morality must rest upon religion, and the great diffi- 
 culty to me is how we are to teach morality to any satis- 
 faction without the support of the chief prop. I wish, 
 Hindley, you would go straight for that question, and 
 when you come to it, no doubt Reynolds and I will both 
 be able, if we feel inclined, to combat your position with 
 rather more effect than at present. It seems to me now 
 that we are simply beating the air." 
 
 <' Well," said Dr. Hindley, " I will try, with Mr. Rey- 
 nolds's leave, to tackle that problem, the really crucial 
 one. If I can propound a method — and I feel by no means 
 sanguine of doing so, as I have never thought out a 
 scheme on the question which can claim to make even a 
 decent approach to a satisfactory solution of a difficulty 
 which leads to most revolutionary proposals — then I shall 
 be satisfied. I only hope that Mr. Reynolds will not con- 
 sider I am attacking either his personal predilections or 
 the position of his class." 
 
 " No, no ; a clergyman, especially of the Established 
 Church, has to stand so much abuse as speedily to learn 
 not to go out of his way to look for insults where none 
 are intended. A thin-skinned man cannot better the 
 world." 
 
 At this moment we reached the highest point on our 
 route, and as we stepped upon the top, with a sudden cry 
 of delight Dr. Hindley stood entranced. And well he 
 might. We were pausing on the summit of the beautiful 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1$ 
 
 Black Ridge, — a name drawn from the dark undergrowth 
 of low furze which covered its flanks, — and on all sides 
 from the pointed top the wide-stretching views were 
 grand. The sun was lying to the west of south, and as 
 the valleys on either side of us trended for the most part 
 to the south-east and north-west, we saw one part of them 
 in sunlight, the rest obscured in shadow. Far away to 
 the south from which we had come, the mountains sank 
 gently to lower and lower heights, until at last the 
 country seemed well-nigh a level plain, bathed in June's 
 warm glow and fresh with the glory of the coming hay. In 
 and out we could see small streams tracking their delicate 
 way, but so still was everything that we could have 
 believed them as motionless as ourselves. To the north 
 and east, whither we were bound, the mountains towered 
 on high . Far as the eye could reach they folded one upon the 
 other in calm repose, looking like giants resting on guard 
 to prevent the sacrilege of intrusion on hallowed ground. 
 Here and there clumps of beeches and stunted oak could 
 be seen, mixed with the golden gorse, placed as it seemed 
 expressly to be a focus for the glowing light. At one 
 point in especial one valley doubled back, forming an islet 
 of green meadow, from which we could hear faintly a 
 tinkling cattle-bell, whose music only made the surround- 
 ing silence live. Peace was in the air : it was the very 
 spot for a worn-out soul to come for quiet rest. Long 
 stood the Doctor without a word, and even I, who had 
 seen the view before, felt that it had never been more 
 beautiful. At last Hindley turned and in a manner al- 
 most solemn said : " Do not speak, do not speak : I want 
 to drink it in." He then lay down on the turf and gazed 
 and gazed, till I could see that he was growing lost in a 
 dream we would not disturb. Finally, with a long-drawn 
 breath he rose and, turning to us slowly, said : — 
 
 " Do you know I think heaven must be like that — so 
 rich, so varied, so calm. Here indeed one can feel the 
 very presence of God ; here one can indeed pray. But as 
 we are at present everything palls ; let us be getting on 
 before I have time to feel that I have had too much." 
 
 I was surprised at this outburst, if an outburst so quiet 
 a remark can be called, as I had never known Hindley so 
 solemn before. I had indeed always felt that, like every 
 
1 6 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 man of strong convictions, he was essentially religious ; 
 but he rather liked shocking what he thought the narrow- 
 ness of others, and hence would make comments on reli- 
 gious beliefs which even I could not think consonant with 
 true religious feeling. But here, as often, I had to confess 
 I had misjudged my man, and as we walked on for some 
 time in silence, the thought came across me that perhaps 
 our previous conversation had something to do with his 
 state of mind, and that he had been more interested in it 
 than he had chosen to say. When the conversation was 
 renewed, I found I was not far wrong. 
 
 " I have been thinking," he said, after a long silence, 
 " what an inestimable blessing the country is to man. 
 How can we live in our hideous, soul- stifling towns ? I 
 would make it a cardinal point in any system of rational 
 education that the young should be trained entirely in the 
 country." 
 
 " The disadvantage is," I said, " that, apart from the 
 expense, unless we are to have only small schools, the 
 children must be shut up in barracks. This means the 
 loss of the most valuable influence that can touch them in 
 their younger years, the influence of mothers and sisters, 
 or — in the case of girls — of their brothers, in place of 
 which they only gain what are often questionable advan- 
 tages indeed." 
 
 " I see you are no friend of our public schools. Well, 
 I admit there is much in what you say, but am not sure 
 that even on the whole I agree. However, we may break 
 a lance on that question by-and-bye. You see, I am so 
 convinced of the absolute unfitness of most parents to be 
 parents at all that I would welcome almost any measures 
 which would promise to bring an education, especially in 
 morals, within reach of the young better than that which 
 most parents now take the trouble to impart." 
 
 " I quite agree with you," I said. " Doubtless you know 
 it is the fundamental article of a schoolmaster's creed that 
 no one knows anything except himself." 
 
 *' Yes. I have discovered it," replied the Doctor, with 
 a twinkle, and Reynolds laughed. 
 
 " Well, you know," said the latter, " they must be for- 
 given. Headmasters and clergymen are nearly the only 
 people left who can even approximate to absolute power." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1/ 
 
 " Don't talk of it," ejaculated the Doctor ; " the term 
 is a bugbear to me. If that is the position of school- 
 masters, the sooner they are swept away the better." 
 
 " Thank you," I said. 
 
 " Never mind, never mind," replied Hindley ; " let's 
 talk of something else. You have almost driven out of 
 my head the soothing effects of that recent glimpse of 
 heaven. But I was dreaming, while lying there, of what 
 the world might become, if only every man and woman 
 did the duty that came to hand with full sincerity and 
 full enlightenment." 
 
 '' That will never be " — this from Reynolds. 
 
 *' I am not so sure. I believe in the progress of man, 
 slow though it be ; were it not for that, my life would be 
 but a dreary round." 
 
 " There come in the consolations of religion." 
 
 " Oh, now," began Hindley, but checked himself. Isaw 
 a storm coming, so intervened and turned the conversation 
 in another direction. 
 
 "To return to the point you raised just now. Don't 
 you exaggerate the deficiencies of the ordinary parent? 
 Even I, though I said laughingly that I am always pre- 
 pared to help to abuse the much-suffering parent, do not 
 really consider them so bad as all that. Moreover, I am 
 a parent myself and know something of the difficulties." 
 
 *' My dear Trelawney," Hindley replied, and I could see 
 by his almost solemn tones that he was now in deadly 
 earnest, " when I speak on purely social topics you may 
 be sure that I never to my conscious knowledge exaggerate. 
 Believe me that a doctor sees more, infinitely more, than 
 even a clergyman of the real insides of homes ; and God 
 forbid that I should represent them as worse than they 
 really are. Your knowledge, of course, lies chiefly in the 
 sphere of middle-class homes, where all specimens are to 
 be found ; but I assert deliberately that in every class of 
 society, from the highest to the lowest, things are done 
 and passed without a word of reproval which any good 
 standard of morality must condemn, sometimes as abso- 
 lutely vicious in themselves, sometimes as tending to 
 produce vicious habits, even though in themselves com- 
 paratively harmless. Take, for instance, punctuality — a 
 minor virtue, perhaps, but one which ought to be strictly 
 
 c 
 
1 8 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 enforced, not merely for a child's own sake, but also for 
 the sake of others. Or a more serious matter still — the 
 love of truth, the exact, absolute, unexaggerated truth. 
 How many parents ever think of systematically checking 
 all attempts at exaggeration ? And once more — the 
 practice and real love of true charity. Or, to go to a 
 more extreme case still, how many parents are aware of 
 the encouragement they give to that worst of all vices, 
 impurity, by thoughtless household arrangements, meant 
 primarily to spare trouble to themselves and their ser- 
 vants? How many, too, think of systematic instruction 
 in regard to the different virtues ? They deal with each 
 question, perhaps, as it turns up ; but who in any other 
 branch of training whatever would think of being content 
 to act so scrappily ? No ; the training must be regular 
 and systematic from our cradle-days onwards, if we are 
 ever to effect a radical improvement in public morality." 
 
 '^ From the cradle ? " put in Reynolds. '' That surely 
 cannot matter. Is it possible to affect the morals of a child 
 till he begins to show signs of consciousness ? " 
 
 " Ah, Mr. Reynolds, you do not know what the re- 
 searches of scientihc men have proved. I lay it down as 
 a maxim which no one who has gone into the subject will 
 dispute, that the child is affected morally, as well as 
 ])hysically and intellectually, by everything which meets 
 him from the moment of birth onwards. Nay, the think- 
 ing man who knows what we doctors know would pro- 
 bably go further still, and say that even before birth a 
 child's moral development may be affected as strongly as 
 his physical." 
 
 " Of course," I interposed, " every one knows that in 
 one sense that is true. Our moral character is largely, 
 and some people say wholly, due to those natural endow- 
 ments which are with us from our mother's womb." 
 
 " But I mean more than that. I say deliberately that 
 the unborn child may, through pernicious habits on the 
 mother's part, have pernicious tendencies implanted which 
 no amount of after-training will eradicate." 
 
 '' What an awful responsibility you lay upon us ! " said 
 Reynolds. 
 
 " Did you think the question was one which could be 
 dealt with offhand — a mere question of slight causes and 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 9 
 
 slight changes of our usual procedure ? If we are to go 
 into the question thoroughly, we must be prepared to 
 argue long and earnestly, and even then, unhappily, may 
 arrive at nothing but tentative conclusions." 
 
 " Well, if we get some guidance from the discussion, I 
 shall not hold the time as lost, though I still maintain 
 that morality is but one branch of religion." 
 
 " It may be a branch. I have already expressed my 
 own feelings on the matter, but you would probably not 
 deny that in religion, as elsewhere, it is sometimes well to 
 partition the subject." 
 
 " Yes, if you never lose sight of the fact, as for instance 
 often happens to the devotees of political economy, that 
 you are treating only a branch. As soon as you lose 
 sight of the religious foundation you go hopelessly astray." 
 
 '' Well, I am quite content to be judged on that point 
 when you have heard all I have to say." 
 
 Here I broke in. '^ I referred just now," I said, " to 
 the question how far nature and how far education are 
 responsible for the finished product. That is a point to 
 which I should like to recur before we make more ad- 
 vance. There are people who have maintained — whether 
 seriously or not, I cannot say — that education can get 
 nothing out of the child which is not already in him, as, 
 indeed, the word seems to imply ; while others hold that 
 education is everything, and nature practically nothing. 
 Of course, both views are exaggerations, but I should like 
 to hear your opinion on the question." 
 
 "Nay," replied the Doctor; " I think you as a school- 
 master are best qualified to speak on that point." 
 
 " Ah," I said, " it is not easy to ensnare you. But I 
 really do want guidance, for at times I feel almost in des- 
 pair of doing any good. I sometimes say in my haste 
 that education is useless, but in my saner moments, of 
 course, admit that that is not so, and even go so far as to 
 say that, given perfect education, we should have perfect 
 men." 
 
 " There you certainly overlook inherited tendencies, as 
 nowadays we call them ; in older times people were con- 
 tent with saying the natural disposition." 
 
 " Yes ; but logically I could overthrow you, for without 
 perfect trainers, which, of course, includes parents, you 
 
20 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 could not have the perfect training, and perfect parents 
 include perfect inherited tendencies." 
 
 " Not necessarily ; there are still reversions. However, 
 this is merely word-play ; let us have your sober judgment 
 on the question." 
 
 " It is not likely to be worth much. It is a question 
 which is at least as old as Euripides, and it seems to me 
 that we are scarcely nearer a solution than he was. You 
 know the passage in the Hecuba ? " 
 
 " Nay ; my Greek was never much, and though, I sup- 
 pose, every one who has read any Greek at all has read 
 the Hecuba, yet I must confess that with me it is as 
 rusty as an old door-nail in a brewery. Give it us, and, 
 as you love me, translate." 
 
 " Well, ap' 01 t€k6vt€<; Siai^ipovcnv ^ rpot^ai, which being 
 interpreted is : 'Do the parents make the difference, or 
 the nurture ? ' Now, for my part, I think that the power 
 of education is exaggerated ; it makes, or seems to make, 
 but little difference to the average boy." 
 
 Reynolds at once said : " You are surely too pessimistic. 
 To begin with, you do as all schoolmasters are apt to do, 
 you confound education with that comparatively unim- 
 portant part of it which goes on at school." 
 " Thank you," I said, with a laugh. 
 " Well, but don't you admit the charge yourself ? " 
 " If you press me, I suppose I must say that I can well 
 believe it to be the case." 
 
 " I see you will not even now wholly give away your 
 confreres. But to pass on. Would you say that the 
 general impression that the great advantage derived from 
 a public school education in England is a moral one is 
 wholly without foundation ? If it is, I am sorry for the 
 public schools." 
 
 " Emphatically," I burst out. " I should say that the 
 impression is most grossly exaggerated. I believe that 
 even still, with all the reforms of Arnold and Percival and 
 Thring, the system is essentially bad, and introduces boys 
 early to the knowledge of vices of which it would be well 
 if they could remain ignorant all their lives; and that 
 even where it does not bring such knowledge, it crushes 
 all the gentler aspects of a boy's nature, producing a 
 blighted, overbearing disposition for which the cultivation 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 21 
 
 of other cliaracteriatics, such as manliness — which would 
 always find sufficient development for itself — can never 
 atone. But you know I am a bit prejudiced even still 
 about public schools. So you must forgive my warmth." 
 
 " Well, I certainly did not expect to rouse such a tem- 
 pest," Reynolds replied, " and am quite willing to give up 
 that argument. I will give you the third point, which is 
 that you are wanting in faith." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 "Because you cannot see the immediate result, you 
 think there is no result at all. We clergymen have, at all 
 events, that advantage over you laymen, that we have 
 recognised faith as an essential principle in the moral 
 order of the world, whereas too many of you refuse to see 
 anything that you cannot handle with pincers and knife." 
 
 " I beg you will not rank me in that category," put in 
 the Doctor ; " to me the absolute necessity of faith is as 
 clear as this glorious daylight." 
 
 " I am very glad to hear it," said Reynolds. 
 
 " Only," went on the Doctor, with a sly look and a wink 
 at me, " you know there are different sorts of faith." 
 
 Reynolds gave him a quick glance, but was not sharp 
 enough to catch his smile, so doubtless took it as a serious 
 hit at his cloth, and, looking grave, said no more on the 
 question. He turned instead to me and resumed : — 
 
 " Now, though you will not admit one of the arguments 
 I used, you will admit one akin to it, which is that the 
 whole world believes that education does something, even 
 though it has not quite the power to make a silk purse 
 out of a sow's ear. And again, just think what would 
 happen if no attempt were made at all to train the young, 
 in however imperfect a way, in the paths of virtue. I 
 recollect a story which will confirm what I say. A friend 
 of mine once told me that he was out one day with a very 
 close friend of his, for whom he had a high admiration — 
 an elementary schoolmaster, named Marin. As they were 
 walking through the streets, a boy passed and capped the 
 schoolmaster. My friend at once remarked : ' That is a 
 queer customer, I should think, Marin.' 'Ah,' said 
 Marin, ' it is a very sad story. One day there came to 
 me at school a man who, just opening the door, pushed a 
 boy violently in, and almost before he was himself visible^ 
 
22 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 called out in rough and angry tones : '' 'Ere, Mr. Marin, 
 'ere's some'un for your birch, rod. 'E's a reg'lar bad 'un, 
 Oi can tell yer. OiVe flogged 'im an' flogged 'im, but 
 'tain't no good, nowt none ; 'e's thorough, doonroight 
 wicked. Oi thought as yer moight loike to try yer 'and 
 on 'im, so 'ere 'a be. Doon't yer spare 'im, doon't yer 
 spare 'im, that's what Oi sez ; thrash 'im 'ard and then 
 'a mai learn t' obey 'is father when 'a speaks. Oi'll leave 
 'im wi' yer and doon't yer never moind ; Oi'll never inter- 
 fere, no matter what yer does — jest give it 'im stroight 
 an' 'ot." I simply inquired the man's name and said I 
 would do what I could, and was left alone with the lad ; 
 and he certainly, as you saw, was a rough 'un to look at. 
 I was not going to commit myself in a hurry, so contented 
 myself with asking his age. It was a long time before I 
 could get anything more from him than " Oi ain't a-goin' 
 to tell yer." But at last I found he was eight. Had 
 he ever been to school before ? No. He had managed to 
 evade the officers, and when turned out of the house 
 ran wild in the streets. And this poor youngster, eight 
 years old, had been thrashed till I could see he was 
 nearly covered with bruises, but had become so hardened 
 to it that he did not seem to care. Well, I turned him 
 over to a class, but it was not long before I found that he 
 was utterly intractable. He was sullen and noisy and 
 flatly disobedient, and at last I kept him out of any regular 
 class, and always had him by me. I could see what he 
 expected, and no doubt wanted, for the purpose of showing 
 how little he cared ; and that was a good thrashing. But 
 that was just what I made up my mind I would not give 
 him. Whenever he got peculiarly intractable I always 
 invented something for him to do — to clean the board, run 
 an errand or something of that sort ; or else, if possible, 
 turned his attention to something else, or left him abso- 
 lutely alone. I sometimes trembled for my discipline with 
 the others, but found that they looked upon him as quite 
 outside the ordinary run, and so I did not fear any feeling 
 of injustice arising from their different treatment. But I 
 can assure you that I was often sorely tried, and it was 
 with the greatest difficulty that I could keep myself 
 under control. But at last my reward came, though it 
 was many and many a week before even a sign of a 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 23 
 
 change appeared. But when the change did come, it was 
 thorough. Badly dispositioned as you see the boy is, and 
 infamously as he had been reared at home, that boy now 
 absolutely worships me, and will do anything or go any- 
 where, if I express a wish. It was a terrible struggle, but 
 my instinct told me I was right, and thank God it proved 
 so.' 
 
 '' When my friend had ended his story, he added that 
 within a year after that his friend, Marin — a noble school- 
 master, if ever there was one — died, and he went to his 
 funeral, and of all the boys at his school, where he was 
 extremely popular, that boy was the only one present, and 
 to see the way he cried made his heart bleed. Now that 
 I can vouch for as a perfectly true incident, and it is suffi- 
 cient to prove that in some cases, at all events, training can 
 overcome even the greatest difficulties." 
 
 " Yes," said the Doctor, " it illustrates what I always 
 maintain must be the basis of all effective education — 
 treatment by kindness, not by punishment. Especially 
 in moral education must that be the fundamental principle 
 — kindness, kindness, kindness." 
 
 "Ah, Doctor," I said, "a greater man than you dis- 
 covered that principle long since. It was the guiding 
 star of that noblest of schoolmasters and yet saddest cf 
 men — the dreamer of dreams of a golden age of which he 
 gave the world too brief a taste — the poor old stumbling, 
 grandly-scheming, yes, and grandly-acting, Pestalozzi." 
 
 " I know nothing of Pestalozzi, but if he made love the 
 keynote of his system, I honour him with all my heart. 
 But one thing we must recollect, there is such a thing as 
 a criminal disposition, which no training on earth can 
 turn to good. The cases happily are rare, but of their 
 existence there can be no doubt." 
 
 " Yes," I rejoined, " but we cannot treat exceptions, 
 only the normalities at first. If we do not now put some 
 limit to our enquiries, we shall never reach any conclu- 
 sions at all, though, mind you, I am not sanguine that 
 under the best of conditions we shall ever attain to a 
 result worth having." 
 
 '' Well," replied Dr. Hindley, " you have commissioned 
 me to undertake the job, so I will see if I can go on, dis- 
 regarding for the present outrageous cases. Now I have 
 
24 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 already reached incidentally my first principle — love, — a 
 principle, indeed, without which I should say that all 
 moral progress is absolutely impossible." 
 
 " That is putting it rather strongly," interposed Rey- 
 nolds. 
 
 " But surely a clergyman would say the same thing ? 
 Wherein do you consider that religion differs from 
 morality, if not in love for a personal God ? It is one of 
 the great points which differentiates Christianity from 
 all other religions, so far as I know, that it makes love for 
 Christ the motive of all action." 
 
 " True." 
 
 " Well, then, that granted, what steps are we to take 
 to assure love's predominance in the whole training of 
 the young ? To begin with, it is obvious that love is not 
 now the regulating factor even of many homes, still less 
 of all school life." 
 
 " Pestalozzi and Arnold went far to show that love can 
 become, at all events, very nearly the ruling factor even 
 at school," I said. 
 
 " Ah, you have an advantage over me in your know- 
 ledge of educational history : I speak merely as an out- 
 sider. But I am truly rejoiced to hear that even in a 
 field so unpromising as a school, love has been tried and 
 worked with success. I do not see why it should not 
 always be so." 
 
 " There you do speak as an outsider, indeed, Hindley. 
 Had you been in my position you would have known soon 
 enough why it is not possible to make love the guiding 
 principle, or perhaps I should say, the main support, in 
 trying to govern character." 
 
 " Well, instruct me then. Why is it ? " 
 
 " Simply for this reason, that a schoolmaster has to 
 deal with so large a number that he cannot make himself 
 a centre of direct love to all under his control. Were 
 schools, as with the Port-Royalists, always limited to a 
 few, taught and teacher could get into the necessary 
 rapport^ but as it is a master, es^^ecially in day-schools, 
 frequently knows next to nothing of his pupils beyond 
 their power to work." 
 
 " More shame to him," said Reynolds ; and Hindley at 
 once chimed in with : — 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 2$ 
 
 " I quite agree. Surely the first duty of a school- 
 master is to provide such opportunities for gaining know- 
 ledge of his pupils that he will be able to influence them 
 even when they are completely unaware of it. How did 
 your friend Pestalozzi manage matters? How many 
 pupils had he ? " 
 
 " About eighty, I think ; sometimes more." 
 
 " And Arnold ? " 
 
 " Oh, some hundreds, I suppose." 
 
 " Then you give up your case ? " 
 
 *' But they were exceptional." 
 
 " And therefore good for types. Schoolmasters should 
 always be exceptional men." 
 
 " Oh, well, if you wish to go in for Utopias, of course I 
 resign. I thought we were discussing what was most 
 feasible at present." 
 
 " Hardly ; but the possibility of moral education, its 
 conditions and mcohods of procedure. And surely I am 
 quite justified in saying that the schoolmasters ought 
 always to be the most exceptional men ; for, as Plato you 
 know thinks, to choose the trainers of the young is the 
 most important task which a State can discharge, and in 
 considering the abstract, I may surely lay down such con- 
 ditions as I please. We can, when we have arrived at 
 a satisfactory theory, supply the qualifications needed to 
 reform modern practice. So then I say that for due 
 training of children we want special gifts of observation 
 and love, and that to love, in all that they do, the trainers 
 must endeavour to give the predominance." 
 
 " A difficult matter and likely to lead to quagmires." 
 
 " Doubtless ; but are there no quagmires at present ? I 
 wonder whether you, if quite candid, would pretend that 
 the difficulties on my method are greater than those with 
 which you and all schoolmasters must needs be familiar ? 
 You know you schoolmasters get more entangled, if I may 
 say so without offence, in the paralyzing meshes of 
 tradition and routine than any other body, at all events in 
 England, of professional men. You want an outsider to- 
 waken you up ; now don't you ? " 
 
 " You're a sanguine man. Dr. Hindley," said Reynolds,. 
 " if you expect any man would, on a bare question like= 
 that, consent so utterly to malign his professional brethren. 
 
26 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 But I think I can get the confession out of our friend in- 
 directly ; so look out, Trelawney, here goes. I happen 
 too, you know, to have read something on education, and I 
 should just like to ask our schoolmaster here how many 
 reformers and theorizers on education have been school- 
 masters in the ordinary sense of the term. Neither Plato 
 nor Quintilian, neither Rabelais nor Montaigne, neither 
 Locke nor Rousseau ; Pestalozzi and Comenius you can 
 perhaps half claim, and Froebel with more show of reason 
 — though he too was far from being always in practice ; 
 Herbart was no schoolmaster by original profession ; and 
 Spencer, so far as I know, has never tried the work. 
 Whom have we left to match these great lights ? The 
 Jesuits, who had ulterior aims, the Port-Royalists, Base- 
 dow, Arnold, — though he too was formed largely apart 
 from school, — Percival, Thring, together with such men as 
 Sturm and Milton, who can hardly be considered at pre- 
 sent. Now I should like to ask Trelawney whether, after 
 such a list as that, he does not think outsiders the more 
 effective of reformers." 
 
 " I am afraid I must admit that outsiders' views are 
 fresher — that suggestions more frequently come from them 
 which are of benefit to the whole world. That we fall 
 readily into a groove I should be the last to deny, and it 
 is one reason the more for basing moral instruction chiefly 
 on the home. The fact seems to me an inevitable result of 
 the conditions under which a schoolmaster has to work and 
 of the material with which he is supplied. But I should 
 like at the same time to utter a protest against the for- 
 midable array of names you have drawn up, and to say 
 that among some wise suggestions these wonderful men 
 have uttered a vast deal of impossible nonsense." 
 
 '' Never mind about that — your admission is enough," 
 resumed Dr. Hindley ; " it is clear you will allow that 
 even an outsider may light upon a happy and far-reaching 
 suggestion. Now, I am an outsider, and I venture to 
 repeat that teachers should in all things let their pupils 
 see that their guiding motive is always love." 
 
 " But how are you to do it ? The greatest of love- 
 workers, Pestalozzi himself, found, when his numbers 
 were much above eighty, that his family theory was un- 
 workable." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 2/ 
 
 " Then don't go above the eighty. I really cannot see 
 the advantage in these big schools. I know something of 
 both kinds, and I say deliberately that there is no gain in 
 the big schools which sufficiently counterbalances the loss 
 of direct influence. What is your opinion, Trelawney ?" 
 
 " I am at one with you. A hundred to a hundred and 
 fifty is enough for any school." 
 
 " But surely," said Reynolds, " the system of houses 
 and house-masters quite counteracts the evil effects of 
 such large numbers." 
 
 "I don't know about quite," rejoined the Doctor, 
 " though I grant it does something. But my theory is 
 that every master ought to have a reasonable chance of 
 getting fairly intimate with every boy, and the first duty 
 of the head-master should be to know all. Why, at 
 present, it is the commonest thing for even the head- 
 master to be unacquainted by sight with many of his 
 boys. And yet we expect moral influence! No doubt 
 with grown people we can produce moral influence apart 
 from personal knowledge, but with children it is hardly 
 the same ; they are so largely governed by their present 
 sensations that any one who attempts to rule them with- 
 out personal contact puts unnecessary difficulties in his 
 own way. Hence I would limit the numbers in a school, 
 and primarily choose my masters by their ability to ex- 
 ercise moral influence upon the young. It is really very 
 easy to gain a child's love, and that once done, the worst 
 is over and you can mould him almost at your will." 
 
 Reynolds here referred to the widespreading effect of a 
 good as well as of an evil tone, adding that in a small 
 school the tone could change more rapidly ; while I, though 
 in my heart I could scarcely help assenting, at all events 
 in the main, to what Hindley said, yet found the school- 
 master instinct too strong and broke out with : — 
 
 "It is all very well talking, but you do not know the 
 difficulties. I will grant that much may be done by love, 
 but you cannot rest everything upon it." 
 
 "Yet you yourself admit that up to a certain point 
 Pestalozzi succeeded, taking for his rule just what you 
 now condemn. He could succeed ; why should not we ? " 
 
 " We haven't the time to give to sufficient study of the 
 children." 
 
28 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " Ah, you are leading me farther than I thought at 
 first, into a complete scholastic revolution. Well, in for 
 a penny, in for a pound, and I may as well go the whole 
 hog. As for studying the children, that must be done in 
 part before teaching is begun ; teachers must be properly 
 trained, not merely to impart knowledge — the least im- 
 portant of their functions — but to make the proper psycho- 
 logical observations. In moral education this is by no 
 means easy, and yet it is a prime condition." 
 
 " Why so ? " said Reynolds. " Surely we can all note 
 the manifestations of morality and fashion our training as 
 they require." 
 
 " You know in medicine," said Dr. Hindley, " it is the 
 small indications which escape the untrained that often 
 lead to a correct diagnosis, on which depends the proper 
 method of treatment ; and it is just the same, as I believe, 
 in treatment for morality." 
 
 "Yes," I chimed in, "there I back you up, and not 
 merely for morality, but for all training whatsoever. 
 The observation of minute details is the surest guide to 
 success. There are stages in a child's life when he is 
 secretive or reticent, and will suppress, if he can, all out- 
 ward indications of his exact mental attitude. In such 
 cases our main guide is the observation of those small,, 
 unconscious revelations of his inner self, of which he 
 probably does not know and which he cannot suppress 
 even if he would." 
 
 " But surely those revelations are very small and rare- 
 If common we all notice them without special training." 
 
 "Unhappily, if we notice, we do not infer from them," 
 I said. " The most obvious signs are before our eyes, and 
 we often remain absolutely blind. How much more are 
 we likely to pass over the slighter ones which in many 
 cases are our only guide ! Here, as so often, the Americans 
 are ahead of us, and that in a wonderful way. I saw 
 quite recently just the kind of thing. It was drawn up 
 by a man who has got a great name in America — Dr. 
 Stanley Hall — and was called *A Topical Syllabus for 
 Child-study — Anger.' It was a series of suggestions for 
 systematically noting whatever phenomena might be ex- 
 pected to appear under the influence of the passion in 
 question, and ranged from purely physical or unconscious^- 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 29 
 
 manifestations, sucK as tlie action of the vaso-motor 
 system, to overt acts, and enquired also into the degrees 
 of proneness to anger in different subjects, the difference 
 of sex, temperament, and the like, and the attitude of 
 children themselves towards anger, when once the angry- 
 fit is past. I remember one point which struck me 
 especially as a proof that the observations were to be 
 scientifically treated : ' Describe the intensity curve of 
 quick and slow children ' was one of the injunctions laid 
 down. Now it is the mass of observations w^hich are thus 
 suggested that makes me object to Dr. Hindley's proposal 
 and say that we teachers have no time." 
 
 '' Well, imagination is fetterless, so I will make another 
 demand : the hours of teachers should be limited." 
 
 " There you may be sure I shall be with you," I said. 
 
 " No doubt ; every one is lazy if he gets the chance." 
 
 '' What a pessimist you are, Dr. Hindley," put in 
 Beynolds. " I know plenty of people who would not be 
 lazy, even with the most favouring chances." 
 
 " Oh, you must not take me too seriously. All I mean 
 is that most people like to give as little time as possible 
 to gaining their livelihood, for in every profession there is 
 a great deal of drudgery, and whatever our liking for our 
 own special line, in course of years the drudgery grows 
 uppermost, and anything comes as a welcome change. 
 But an industrious man is industrious always, though he 
 may naturally dislike being so tied down by the necessities 
 of life as to have no time to give to other pursuits than 
 the grinding one of his profession. And that is all I 
 meant. But, seriously, I do consider that a conscientious 
 schoolmaster is very much overworked ; at least, if we hope 
 to get from him the maximum of good. In his, as in my 
 own profession, it is above all things desirable that the 
 agent should be fresh, and freshness is impossible where 
 the school hours are so long, at least when conjoined with 
 evening work, as to leave him no time either to recruit 
 himself fairly or to think over his difficulties, digest his 
 notes on children, and devise better methods of treatment." 
 
 " But," Eeynolds said, " the same argument applies to 
 all engaged in education — mothers, nurses, governesses, 
 and University tutors, as well as to schoolmasters. Can 
 you carry it out in all cases ? " 
 
30 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " We must try." 
 
 Here I said : " I think that shows the impracticability 
 of your proposal. But of course I do not complain. I 
 only say you give us schoolmasters a large task ; I fear 
 you would not think much of the way we usually dis- 
 charge it." 
 
 ''Well, humanity is frail, and for my own part I am 
 prepared to find fault with anything at a moment's 
 notice. But after all, I am talking not of what is, but of 
 what should be. And I say deliberately that until you 
 give schoolmasters — and I would, mutatis mutandis, in- 
 clude the other classes Reynolds named — such leisure as 
 to allow them to take ample notes of their work and to 
 digest them, and equip them, moreover, with the desire to 
 profit by that leisure and the training to enable them to 
 do so, so long will your education be but a halting thing, 
 especially on the moral side. Here, then, we need another 
 reform— the shortening of a schoolmaster's working hours, 
 coupled with that insistence on the paramount importance 
 of moral qualifications to which we referred some time 
 ago." 
 
 " You attach very great importance to a schoolmaster's 
 functions." 
 
 " And am I not right ? Have I not the high authority 
 of Plato ? No doubt your practical man is content with a 
 makeshift, and if schoolmasters do not uphold the banner 
 of the ideal in face of the overwhelming difficulties, who, 
 pray, is to do so ? I may be sketching a Utopia, but it is 
 a Utopia to which an approximation could be made, if we 
 would but try." 
 
 " Well, Hindley," I said, " 'tis not for me to find fault, 
 though I fear the world would have laughed had I made 
 the proposal. I can assure you that I should take good 
 care to have a high old time." 
 
 " Flippancy is not argument," Hindley gravely replied, 
 and I felt rather crushed. " But," he went on, " I know 
 you too well, Trelawney, to accept your self-disparage- 
 ment. I know you would have nothing like what you are 
 pleased to call in such vulgar phrase 'a high old time,' 
 unless it is a high old time to throw yourself heart and 
 soul into your duties, for the one simple reason that your 
 duties they are." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 31 
 
 " Well," said Beynolds, '' that possibility may hold of 
 our friend here, and it would be rude to suggest the 
 opposite ; but I have a wide and varied acquaintance 
 among schoolmasters, and I must confess that, despite 
 many noble exceptions, I have not as yet seen reason to 
 believe that they do their duty from any deeper con- 
 scientiousness, taken as a class, than any other body of 
 men." 
 
 " That may be so now ; but you remember I laid down 
 as an express condition that the trainers were to be the 
 exceptional men, and surely a keen sense of duty is one 
 of the chief points which in such matters go to form 
 exceptional men." 
 
 " True ; but you will have to make it worth while for 
 men thus exceptionally endowed to enter the profession." 
 
 ''That naturally." 
 
 ''And then comes the further difficulty, how would you 
 test them ? They would have to be tried as schoolmasters 
 before you could know all their qualifications, and mean- 
 time the harm would be done." 
 
 " I do not expect to arrive at perfection all at once. 
 But if schoolmasters and all trainers were so paid, and 
 received such social honour as to attract into the profes- 
 sion always the best men, and above all into those parts 
 of it which require the best men most — I mean, of course, 
 the elementary stages — instead of drawing them, as at 
 present, in the main to the universities, where students 
 can be more trusted to look after themselves, then you 
 would start with such a pick that it would not be difficult 
 to get rid of the less competent, provided only that you 
 had at the head of all a man so strong as to be guided 
 solely by merit, and not sacrifice, as is so often, alas ! the 
 case now, the interests of the children to his own personal 
 likings or the supposed claims of long work. Of course a 
 pension scheme is involved, at least till the days of com- 
 munism ; but to perfect education I grudge no expense." 
 
 " I grant the desirability of your end, but I fear it is 
 utterly and entirely impracticable." 
 
 " Do not say entirely, but only at present. We must, 
 of course, approximate by degrees ; but the first mercenary 
 step taken we should have gone a long way towards the 
 end which I hope to attain. However, let us pass on, for 
 
32 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 in any reconstruction of society I grant that tlie suggested 
 schemes seem at the outset hopeless. A real reconstruc- 
 tion requires parallel advance along all lines at once. But 
 here at least is a point which is feasible, and easily 
 feasible — we must have mixed schools, and mixed teachers 
 for every school — boys and girls studying together, and 
 men and women teaching together." 
 
 Reynolds burst out laughing, and exclaimed : " Well, 
 really, Dr. Hindley, you must excuse me, but you go from 
 bad to worse. When you said something quite feasible 
 was coming, I little expected so startling a revolution. 
 But the farther you go, the more hopeless seems your 
 case." 
 
 '' What a fine lot of amusement we should have, both 
 among pupils and teachers ! " I said. 
 
 " Now there you are again, Trelawney, flippant as usual. 
 If I did not know you I should really think you did not 
 care one iota for educational problems at all. But I do 
 not know why you should consider it so hopeless. Surely 
 you will admit, Mr. Reynolds, that even at present the 
 mixed system among pupils and teachers at the element- 
 ary schools works well." 
 
 " I have known some object." 
 
 " But not, I think, the majority. And in America the 
 mixed system is in vogue, among the children at all 
 events, and in very common vogue too. What I have 
 seen about it seems to prove that it leads to excellent 
 results. Do you know if this is so, Trelawney, if your 
 flippant mind has ever condescended to note such amusing 
 details?" 
 
 " All right, Hindley, I shall have you some day, I guess, 
 as the Americans say. I know something more about 
 their system of education than you do, and I am bound to 
 confess that so far as I have been able to find out, every 
 one almost without exception is deep in admiration of the 
 system." 
 
 " I suppose," said Reynolds, " I must acknowledge that 
 my laughter was but the crackling of thorns under the 
 pot " 
 
 " Well, if you choose to be so uncomplimentary to your- 
 self," said Hindley, with a wink at me, " of course it is 
 not for me to gainsay you." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 33 
 
 Reynolds laughed and went on : " But I could not help 
 being amazed at your calm disregard, in speaking of a 
 feasible project, of all the ingrained conservatism and 
 prejudices of the British parent. Why, your proposal 
 would turn the British matron's hair white. My work 
 lies extensively among what we, like snobs, call the 
 middle classes, and while I do not think that the lower or 
 upper classes, for different reasons, would raise very great 
 difficulties in the way, I am convinced that in the middle 
 classes the opposition would be uncompromising." 
 
 " Oh, if that is all, I have not much fear. If the two 
 extremes of society set the fashion, the middle class will 
 not be long in following, partly because they are very fond 
 of aping those who are so unjustly called their betters, 
 partly because, when they see the lower classes doing well 
 under the system, they will be too jealous not to follow 
 suit." 
 
 " You are not very complimentary to them, and yet I 
 think both your arguments are mistaken. As regards the 
 first, I should say that the middle classes, who have so 
 long resisted, in blind contentment, the system of the 
 public schools, are not likely to take up rapidly with such 
 a revolution as you propose ; and as regards the second, 
 do you think it is worth anything at all, when you con- 
 sider the amazing fact that for twenty years and more the 
 middle classes have been contented with an education 
 really costly, yet in many points inferior to that which 
 those whom they consider so far below them have been 
 obtaining for their children for next to nothing ? It is to 
 me an almost heart-breaking proof of the narrowing effects 
 of shop-keeping and social prejudice. Of course there are 
 exceptions, but I think in the main my sketch is true. 
 And if so, how are you going to convert them ? " 
 
 "Either by disregarding them, and leaving them to 
 work out their own salvation by being hopelessly worsted 
 in the race of life, or, better still, by drastic measures on 
 the part of the State." 
 
 " Hurrah ! hurrah ! here is your socialism at last ! " I 
 exclaimed. " I have been waiting for it to turn up, as I 
 knew when it did you would be thoroughly warm to your 
 work, and likely to make a good stiff fight. So now, then, 
 set to. I will form a ring and hold the stakes, and, fur- 
 
 D 
 
34 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 ther, will bet ten to one that neither of you will be 
 beaten ! " 
 
 At this both my companions laughed, and Reynolds 
 said : — 
 
 " Though our subject is near it, we are not discussing 
 socialism at present, so I utterly decline at this point to 
 be drawn into a pitched battle. I would rather hear the 
 rest of these very startling views. I will content myself 
 with saying that interference by the State I simply loathe, 
 and consider that in education it has done a vast deal of 
 harm." 
 
 " I am glad that you do not say more harm than good. 
 I suppose you are interested in a voluntary school ? Ah, 
 well, then I can forgive your heat : it is not pleasant to 
 be driven against one's wdll. But let us abandon that 
 question, if you please, and return to moral education. It 
 has always seemed to me that the separation of the sexes 
 in education is at the root of most of our grievous social 
 evils, especially when combined with what the Bishop of 
 Chester has well called the barrack system of education as 
 applied to boys, and to a less extent to girls also." 
 
 " Well, you are certainly a revolutionist," said Reynolds. 
 " What advantages, pray, do you expect to accrue, then, 
 from the mixing of the sexes at school? " 
 
 " To put it briefly, this : that each sex will develop 
 some of the virtues of the opposite. At present we 
 brutalize boys, and make them still more empty of the 
 gentler virtues by separating them from the influence of 
 women, while we rob girls of all chance of shaking off the 
 timidity and want of self -management and independence 
 to which they are by nature so prone, as we give them no 
 opportunity of seeing anything of a world where these 
 virtues are held in high regard. You know the old story 
 of the preacher who, in his sermon, urged the young 
 women to be brave, and the young men to be chaste ? A 
 member of his congregation remonstrated with him after- 
 wards, and wanted to know whether he had not misplaced 
 his words. ' Ah, no,' he replied ; * Nature has taken care 
 that young men should be brave and young women chaste. 
 Our aim must be to cultivate in each sex precisely those 
 virtues in which they are deficient.' And so I say now, 
 that those virtues which are the birthright of each sex 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 35 
 
 require in education comparatively small regard: what 
 should claim our chief attention and our most unstinted 
 efforts is the cultivation of those which are not likely to 
 grow strong of themselves. And I cannot think that a 
 more refining influence can be brought to bear upon boys 
 than the constant presence among them of womanly and 
 girlish delicacy and grace, or, on the other hand, a more 
 bracing and stimulative influence upon girls than the 
 healthy masculinity and self-reliant courage of boys and 
 men. This, indeed, is chiefly from the side of the children 
 mixed, but from the mixture of teachers also similar re- 
 sults will follow. In boys' schools I think we shall 
 especially see this change; the frequent uproariousness 
 and want of proper self-restraint will be more advantage- 
 ously and easily curbed through a boy's feeling of chivalry 
 for a lady-teacher than through the awe which he may 
 feel before a man. It is easier for a woman to gain a 
 boy's love, provided, of course, she has the power of com- 
 mand. And a like feeling on the other side will probably 
 take possession of the breasts of those girls who have 
 masters over them ; in fact, I do not believe that our hopes 
 of gain could ever be excessive. In the case of the very 
 young, say up to ten years of age, I hold that boys should 
 never be left entirely to men, unless, indeed, they be men 
 of most unusual endowments ; though as regards young 
 girls, the most striking lesson I ever saw was one given 
 by a master at a school in Prussia to a class — or rather 
 two classes — of little girls, aged respectively five and six. 
 And what do you suppose the subject was ? Arithmetic 
 — the elementary numbers up to 10 and 100. Still, this 
 was at a day school, and the object was mainly intellec- 
 tual ; it would be a different matter to hand over the 
 children to men alone for months together. No doubt we 
 could find cases to prove that a man is capable of taking 
 quite young boys, or even girls, with great effect from the 
 point of view of moral advance as well as, for instance, if 
 I understand aright, our friend's great champion, Pesta- 
 lozzi ; but in the main I think our chief guide should be 
 the principle I have already laid down. Young children 
 to women entirely : from about the age of ten onwards, in 
 the main, though not exclusively, to teachers of the sex 
 opposite to their own." 
 
36 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 Here I interposed. " But you are laying down an im- 
 possibility. You say schools are to be mixed, and unless 
 you are going to keep the classes separate, when practi- 
 cally the schools will not be mixed at all, you will not be 
 able to give the boys to women chiefly and the girls to 
 men." 
 
 Dr. Hindley laughed a moment, and then said, *' Well, 
 I am a fool " 
 
 Reynolds at once broke in slily with " I did not say so ; 
 but it you choose to be so uncomplimentary to yourself, of 
 course it is not for me to gainsay you." 
 
 Hindley recognised his own words, and laughing, said : 
 " A very fair retort. But what I was going to say was 
 this, that it is very difficult in sketching an ideal to keep 
 oneself free from present conditions, and I am afraid I let 
 my thoughts carry me back to our usual practice without 
 considering what I was doing. Of course, if my original 
 plan were carried out, that boys and girls should always 
 be educated together, the last stipulation — to give chil- 
 dren to teachers of the sex opposite to their own — is un- 
 necessary, nay, more, an impossibility ; if only we add the 
 mixing of teachers as it occurs, I know, often in German 
 girls' schools, the whole thing is done. Of course I am 
 aware that a great deal of prejudice, so ably expounded 
 by our friend Mr. Reynolds, has to be overcome ; but it is 
 surely worth while to try. It will indeed require some 
 boldness to make the start — though I hear it has already 
 occurred — as it would probably mean bankruptcy at first. 
 If, however, we could find two sets of people — first some 
 wealthy and charitable person to finance the scheme, and 
 secondly a number of enthusiastic parents willing to let 
 their children be the corpora vilia — I have no doubt the 
 fashion would spread, as the goodness of it would soon be 
 apparent." 
 
 " Doctor," I said, " the scheme has been tried, not only 
 in America, but also in London." 
 
 " And what has been the result ? " 
 
 " The school goes on well, so I understand, and has 
 certainly met with the cordial approval of more than one 
 educational expert." 
 
 " I am heartily glad of it," said the Doctor, " and wish 
 the experiment every success." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 37 
 
 The afternoon was now growing late, and the cooler air, 
 moistened by the river on whose banks we were walking, 
 was a welcome refreshment to our tired spirits — tired 
 with both physical and mental work. The sun was 
 striking low just over the top of a beautiful fir-clad 
 mountain ridge, tinging with a richer colour the long 
 grass in the meadow through which our path now lay. 
 Cows were peacefully grazing, or, a commoner case, lying 
 the picture of calm contentment, lazily chewing the 
 cud. Not a sound could be heard save our own steps and 
 voices and the placid murmur of the gentle river gliding 
 over its smooth- worn bed. Occasionally we caught a 
 bird's light call, or saw one flit past us on hurrying wing. 
 The lengthening shadows and faint freshness of the grass 
 seemed to bid us lay by our toils and rest, at least so long 
 as would give our minds time to revive their energies for 
 further work. But for our bodies, we were now in so good 
 a swing of walking, and were, to boot, so alive to the calls 
 of the inner man, that when I suggested we had better 
 postpone the rest of our discussion, the more so at this most 
 convenient breaking-point, my companions readily agreed. 
 So we trudged along in happy heart the remaining mile 
 or two, till we reached at last the fishing inn, where we 
 knew we could obtain a healthy tea, and take the joyful 
 rest of a pipe and complete repose — not the least of the 
 enjoyment on an all-day's tramp. Long we sat by the 
 river's brink, watching at times the growing shadows and 
 the declining sun, at times marking listlessly the fish as 
 they rose, or the birds as they flitted home, or still more 
 listlessly brooding in thought or chatting in broken 
 spasms on anything and everything that came first into 
 our minds. At last we rose to make for the nearest town 
 to catch the train home, but we did not separate without 
 agreeing that the discussion must be finished ; and so, 
 as I urged that if our wives could join us it would be an 
 advantage to have the woman's point of view, we decided 
 to meet at my house for dinner three days thence, and 
 discuss the remaining points under the placid conditions 
 of a good meal and an easy chair. 
 
 Thus we parted, each, no doubt, with food for thought ; 
 and I, in especial, wondering whether after all it was not 
 true, as Reynolds had said, that most of the great re- 
 
38 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 formers in education were outsiders, because schoolmasters 
 were too narrow to know their limitations, and whether 
 that view had not received confirmation in the past day's 
 astounding proposals. For astounding I felt them to be, 
 although a socialist is, by the very law of his being, 
 nothing if not astounding. For, to say nothing of the 
 question of mixed education, tried already with success in 
 various parts of the world, the theory that schoolmasters 
 should be the picked men and should have large leisure 
 abundantly guaranteed, though I had often heard it pro- 
 pounded before, I had never heard laid down as a funda- 
 mental proposition, at least in recent years. And then, 
 again, the point that the whole of education must be based 
 on love, love consciously given and consciously received, 
 was to me a great stumbling-block, for I could not help 
 smiling as I thought what havoc it would make of the 
 ordinary school routine. In theory it was beyond ques- 
 tion excellent, and Pestalozzi had shown that under certain 
 conditions it could be made to work ; but those conditions 
 — when were they likely to recur ? And, after all, Pesta- 
 lozzi seemed, except at Yverdun, to have had mainly to 
 deal with the class of children to whom love is almost a 
 stranger, and in whom, therefore, any show of it, no 
 matter how slight, would be likely to call forth a vigorous 
 response. Would the same result follow its bestowal on 
 those who had a liberal allowance of it in their own 
 homes ? I could not but have doubts, though I admitted 
 to myself that I should be glad for some one to try the 
 experiment. For myself, I lacked a reformer's nerve, and, 
 indeed, was so placed that I could not risk failing. That 
 difficulty I fear prevents many of us trying to carry out 
 our theories in actual practice ; a hero would be wanted to 
 accomplish the work, and not every one, alas ! is so noble 
 and so brave as that hero of heroes, the wonderful Pesta- 
 lozzi. 
 
II 
 
 TT7HEN the evening we had appointed for our next dis- 
 V V cussion came we sat down to a quite informal dinner, 
 we 'three and our respective wives. As I said at the be- 
 ginning, it was a good thing now that we were to take into 
 consideration the woman's view, for women see education 
 with different eyes and with more regulation, perhaps, 
 from the feelings than we sterner men. And our wives 
 were as different as we ourselves. Mrs. Hindley was steeped 
 in social philosophy — an ardent advocate of women's rights. 
 So well read was she that I never could suppress trepida- 
 tion when I ventured to dispute any of her dicta. And 
 yet I had to do so not unfrequently, for of dicta she was 
 very fond, and, indeed, would have been regarded as a 
 formidable instance of the evil effects of a woman's edu- 
 cation had it not been that throughout all discussions she 
 never lost her true womanliness and the grace that was 
 but heightened by her extreme ardour. Mrs. Reynolds 
 was of a different type, quiet, unpretending, yet gifted with 
 a shrewd insight into practical matters — a firm believer in 
 all that is good in this world, and possessed of a strong 
 faith in the next, a woman whom no one could meet with- 
 out admiring for her gentleness and simplicity and char- 
 acteristic kindness of heart. She was for a clergyman 
 an ideal wife. My own wife again varied from them both : 
 she was enthusiastic and largely influenced by her feelings, 
 yet from her training as a schoolmistress was also well 
 aware that her feelings were not always her best guide. 
 Her impetuosity would often lead her into mistakes, which 
 she was ready to detect and admit at once. She could 
 always see the right, but did not quite always manage to 
 do it. In a discussion such as that which we were going 
 to resume, I knew where her sympathies would lie, but I 
 also knew that so long as the question was in the abstract, 
 she would detect, despite her sympathies, mistakes on any 
 
40 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 side. Such were the six, then, who were met to discuss 
 the all-important topic of moral education. I knew the 
 discussion was likely to be long, so lost no time in intro- 
 ducing the subject. 
 
 " You know," I said, " ladies, that we three here present, 
 your legal lords and husbands, have already had a long 
 talk about moral education, and Dr. Hindley has laid it 
 down as a fundamental proposition, from which, of course, 
 Mr. Reynolds and I dissented, that the chief end of such 
 training should be — now, what do you suppose ? — to turn 
 boys into girls and girls into boys." 
 
 Here there was a general laugh, and Mrs. Hindley at 
 once said : — 
 
 " If I thought that my husband had ever said anything 
 so foolish, I would apply for a divorce on the spot." 
 
 " ' Oh, mighty Caesar, dost thou lie so low ? 
 
 Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, 
 Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well!'" 
 
 murmured Dr. Hindley. " I should be sorry to be so 
 lightly dispatched, but am rejoiced, my dear, to find that 
 you still have left a gleam of faith in your husband's com- 
 mon sense. Really, Mrs. Trelawney," he went on, turn- 
 ing to my wife, " you ought to keep your husband in better 
 order. All the time during our walk the other day he was 
 coming out with some flippant remarks on the least possible 
 provocation — a course of procedure naturally not con- 
 ducive to the philosophic mind ; and now, on once more 
 introducing the subject, he is not merely flippant, but 
 grossly calumnious. Certainly his own moral education 
 must have been in some way grievously defective." 
 
 " Oh, he is always like that," my wife cruelly replied ; 
 "if he does not lead the talk himself, he will never let 
 any one else speak." 
 
 " My dear ! " I expostulated, but met with no 83rm- 
 gathy, for after the laugh was over, Mi-s. Hindley turned 
 to Reynolds and asked him as the third and trustworthy 
 party to say what her husband had really propounded. 
 
 " As far as I remember, what Dr. Hindley said was 
 this, that an educator should make it one of his chief 
 aims to develop in each sex those qualities which consti- 
 tute its own leading deficiencies, and at the same time the 
 chief glory of the other half of the race. He urged, what 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 4 1 
 
 seems undoubtedly of force, that boys and girls may be 
 trusted to develop of themselves, at least in the main, 
 those peculiar virtues to which Nature has made them 
 prone, but that they require special care in order to secure 
 the adequate development of certain other qualities which 
 are in danger too often of disappearing altogether." 
 
 " Well, Mrs. Hindley," said my wife, " I think after 
 that the divorce should be for me. To think that I should 
 be wedded to a man who is either unable or unwilling to 
 carry in his head so excellent a proposition ! There is 
 only one word to express my feelings, and that is the 
 German abscheulich — abominable ! " 
 
 " I pity you, my dear," replied Mrs. Hindley, with a 
 would-be withering look at me. " But now I should like 
 to ask my husband whether that account does fairly re- 
 present what he actually said." 
 
 " Yes, very well." 
 
 " Good; I am proud, my dear, to think how apt a pupil I 
 have had to all my teaching, and to see that you can carry 
 my principles into spheres to which I have never brought 
 them." 
 
 " Oh," replied the Doctor, " there might be two opinions 
 on the question who was the teacher and who the taught." 
 
 " Well, husband and wife are one, so we will regard 
 ourselves as both teacher and taught. But now, I think, 
 Mr. Trelawney ought for a penance to tell us what else my 
 husband said, in order that we may see exactly how far 
 the discussion went. And this time, if you please," she 
 added, turning to me, " quite seriously : the matter is too 
 important for joking. And, Mr. Reynolds, will you be 
 kind enough to pull Mr. Trelawney up as soon as ever he 
 oversteps the line of strict truth ? So now, Mr. Trelawney, 
 begin, if you please. General principles first, details after- 
 wards." 
 
 " Well, for my sins I suppose I must do my best. The 
 propositions which Dr. Hindley laid down were, I think, 
 these : — 
 
 1. " That all school life must be based on the principle 
 of love." 
 
 Here I saw my wife rather open her eyes, but in a 
 moment she nodded her head, and I went on without 
 stopping :-- 
 
42 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 2. " That in choosing our schoolmasters, and, indeed, all 
 trainers of the young, we are to choose men the most ex- 
 ceptional to be found." 
 
 3. " These trainers are to be most highly paid, which, 
 indeed, follows from 2, and, oh joy ! " 
 
 Mrs. Hindley looked stern and shook a warning finger at 
 me. " They are to have unending leisure." 
 " Hardly unending," put in the Doctor. 
 
 4. '' All schools are to be mixed, and the teachers are to 
 be both men and women in the same school, with the 
 proviso that children up to ten are not to be committed, save 
 in the rarest cases, to any one's hands but a woman's." 
 
 " Good, indeed," ejaculated Mrs. Hindley. 
 
 5. " There is to be a stern censor, whom neither fear nor 
 favour can influence, to weed out remorselessly all the in- 
 competents, and not sacrifice the claims of the many to 
 the one for whom he may happen to have special regard." 
 
 6. " The best teachers are to be given to the youngest 
 children, the less good to those next in years, and so on 
 regularly as we climb the tree, until at the Universities 
 we no longer find the pick of the profession, as usually 
 now, but, of the body whose members are all largely com- 
 petent, those who are the least competent of all." 
 
 " What an odd proviso ! " said my wife. 
 
 "Surely not," replied the Doctor. "I stipulate that 
 simply on the ground that the older and more advanced a 
 student is the better he can be trusted to make good of 
 himself defects on the part of his master. Your own ex-^ 
 perience surely will confirm that view." 
 
 " Yes, now I see. But what a revolution your theory 
 would cause, a revolution not confined to moral training 
 alone ! " 
 
 " That, I think," I said, " brings the main positions to 
 an end." 
 
 J* Excuse me, Trelawney," said the Doctor, " but I really 
 think you must be trying to intentionally represent me as 
 a hopeless idiot. Else why should you leave out the great 
 stipulation which explains the provision at which you 
 expressed such joy : the stipulation, I mean, that teachers 
 are to be trained so as constantly to make scientific ob- 
 servations on children's psychology and moral characters, 
 and 80 as to be able to digest their notes and work them 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 43 
 
 into something like a rational scheme, as the basis for 
 proper training ? That is the reason why, above all, I say 
 that schoolmasters should have abundance of leisure. 
 And if this point is to be number seven, there is yet an 
 eighth, which has completely escaped you, that education, 
 so far as possible, is to find its home entirely in the 
 country ; and that if this cannot be, from collision with 
 that other, yet more important, law of keeping the child 
 in touch with his home, then, at all events, the country 
 must be visited often, and this not chiefly for health, but 
 above all to purify the weary little soul and to cultivate 
 the sense of freshness and beauty — influences which bear 
 more directly upon morality than many who have thought 
 but little on the subject would at first be willing to 
 admit." 
 
 " I am glad. Dr. Hindley," said Mrs. Reynolds in reply, 
 " that you have made some mention of the home at last. 
 I was afraid we poor mothers were going to be disregarded, 
 left out in the cold altogether." 
 
 " That I assure you was merely an accident of the cir- 
 cumstances under which our discussion took place. I 
 knew we should have to come to home at last." 
 
 " And there is another point, if you please," my wife 
 put in, " which has still to be considered. It is all very 
 well to lay down fine principles of vague breadth and 
 great generality, but where are your details ? Details 
 alone can supply the test of any scheme, however ambi- 
 tious." 
 
 " I do not agree with you, Mrs. Trelawney," said the 
 Doctor's wife. ^' I grant their importance in the proper 
 place, but in any scheme for the reconstruction of society 
 main lines come first, details afterwards." 
 
 " I know many people say that, but to me it seems the 
 very reason why many schemes are of so little value in 
 this our makeshift, work-a-day world. From my own ex- 
 perience in the management of school, I know that the 
 details are the deciding points ; from them comes the pos- 
 sibility of carrying out the principles, not vice ver'sd. 
 And I am sure my husband agrees with me, don't you ? " 
 
 " With this reservation, that it is no good attempting 
 to rearrange details unless you have in your mind the 
 guiding principle to begin with." 
 
44 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " Ah," Mrs. Hindley cried with joy, " that gives the 
 case entirely to me." 
 
 " No, no ; I cannot admit that," rejoined my wife ; "but 
 we will not theorize on theory at present, as we have 
 something much more important to discuss. I daresay 
 when we come to talk the matter out, we shall find our 
 divergencies mainly verbal." 
 
 " I hope so ; but now I should like to ask what the 
 general public here assembled thinks of the outline so 
 far ? Do you agree that the outline is a good one — suit- 
 able, that is, for filling with details of a really good scheme 
 of moral education ? " 
 
 After a slight discussion we seemed pretty well agreed 
 that, though the project might not be in all points very 
 feasible, there were some to which an approximation might 
 be made, and that it would at all events be worth our 
 while to retrace our steps and go into detail, considering 
 moral education from cradle-days onwards. 
 
 " Only," Mrs. Hindley said, " I would have you please 
 observe how, even in a matter which by their own con- 
 fession the three gentlemen here consider to be chiefly a 
 woman's sphere, they have shown their sex's domineering 
 propensities, and have laid down, without even asking our 
 advice, the main lines of our procedure and the conditions 
 of our work, and only now solicit our help when deduc- 
 tions are to be drawn and no initiative is left. The kings 
 have issued their royal mandate—* Such is our will and 
 pleasure ; obey, or be thrust out,' and we, their subjects, 
 have to comply. Truly, women are a feeble folk ! " 
 
 At this sally we all laughed, and the Doctor said : " I 
 do not think, my dear, you need be afraid that there will 
 not be abundance of opportunity for initiative when the 
 time comes for details to be faced ; for they are, indeed, 
 the most difficult matter, and may still shipwreck the 
 whole scheme. Indeed, though I have had a few days to 
 consider what is to be said on this part of the subject, I 
 fear it far more than the original discussion on which I 
 was launched quite unprepared. However, I must, I 
 suppose, begin. 
 
 "First, then, as a doctor I lay down this maxim, that the 
 primary requisite of all is health; physical education claims 
 precedence as the condition on which all else depends." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 45 
 
 " But surely, Dr. Hindley, you are not going to maintain 
 that a person cannot reach a high degree of morality with- 
 out good health." 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Reynolds, do not mistake me. I am going 
 to make no assertions which I do not think I can prove. I 
 have, and doubtless you have too, known far too many 
 cases of wonderful character in very ailing bodies to leave 
 me the chance of maintaining that bad health and morality 
 are inconsistent. But remember we are discussing a 
 problem of education, and I say that the more perfect the 
 body, the more easy is it to perfect the moral character. 
 Not that I look for perfection in either, at all events for a 
 long time to come ; but no one, I think, would utterly deny 
 that health has much to do with, at least, some sides of 
 morality. There is said to have been once a Catholic 
 Archbishop, who, when any of his flock complained to him 
 of wicked thoughts, instead of imposing penance, simply 
 told them to look to their digestions. The ancients placed 
 the seat of many passions in the liver ; and though modern 
 medical science does not exactly bear out their theories, 
 still there is no doubt that the state of the liver has a 
 very direct bearing not merely upon our happiness, but, 
 what is more important, upon our character too. There- 
 fore I say that we must look to health first of all. If any 
 one indeed is so unfortunate as to be gifted with an ail- 
 ing constitution from the beginning, then we must re- 
 cognise that in trying to train him we are working at a 
 certain disadvantage ; but this disadvantage in our abstract 
 discussion we must for the present disregard." 
 
 " But what do you say. Doctor, of the discipline of 
 suffering ? " — Reynolds was thus supporting his wife. 
 
 " We shall have to deal with the question of pain and 
 punishment in its proper place. For the moment I will 
 only say that I know the influence of physical suffering 
 is often to refine, though, sometimes, I grieve to say, its 
 effect is the opposite. But does it not stand to reason 
 that the man whose bodily functions work with least 
 effort and resistance is likely to have more energy to spare 
 for moral growth — for which energy is required as for 
 every other part of life — and that the cheerfulness which 
 results from unimpeded health is a most valuable ally to 
 morality? Indeed, I often think that people do not 
 
46 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 sufficiently weigh the importance of cheerfulness in the 
 moral order of the world. I look upon it as a primary- 
 duty, not merely to oneself but above all to one's neigh- 
 bours, to try and cultivate a habit of cheerfulness. 
 Many sacrifices should be made with that object in view, 
 and great care must be taken that by regular and well- 
 ordered exercise and training all the natural organs 
 perform their functions well. Most of the more grievous 
 moral faults of children may be traced to one or other of 
 two causes — want of forethought to estimate the full 
 effect of their actions, or some physical infirmity, tempo- 
 rary or permanent. And in this connection their feeding 
 requires especial care. By unsuitable diet, which leads 
 to bad nutrition, we permanently injure not merely the 
 physical but also the moral well-being of the child. This 
 is a point in which parents require most careful instruc- 
 tion. In the main a child's likes and dislikes will be a 
 safe guide, though we must not, of course, be led into 
 absurdities, and give them anything for which they may 
 choose to ask, no matter how injurious it may have 
 been shown to be. But if children have not had the 
 opportunity of noticing that their elders have preferences 
 and likes and dislikes, there is little chance of their de- 
 veloping to any serious extent the vices of fastidiousness 
 and Nascherei. If they do show signs of them, they 
 can easily be checked, partly by giving variety of food, 
 partly by cutting off all opportunities of getting dainties, 
 though for this latter end we may have to deny ourselves, 
 in order to avoid exposing our children to temptation." 
 
 " Ah ! that is all very well," I said ; " but how many 
 parents would you find willing to practise such self- 
 denial?" 
 
 " We know, Mr. Schoolmaster, that you are the parents' 
 sworn decrier. But I venture to think that if you make 
 enquiries you will find parents are more ready to practise 
 self-denial, with the hope of doing their children good, 
 than you are at present inclined to believe." 
 
 " The real difficulty," my wife said, " is, not in getting 
 them to forego pleasures for their children's sake, but in 
 getting them to admit that certain indulgences of their 
 own do their children any harm." 
 
 " Precisely. And in order to instruct them on this 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 47 
 
 head, we want, first, a better general education, and, 
 secondly, specific instruction in morality, particularly as 
 regards our duty to others, one special branch of which 
 must be the direct instruction of future parents in parental 
 duty." 
 
 " It is a large course you are sketching," I said. 
 
 " Not too large for the end in view. For we aim at 
 nothing less than the production of a perfect man, and to 
 attain that end no effort can be too great. We shall not 
 attain it all at once, but we can approximate. However, 
 the proper method of specific instruction is rather beyond 
 our purpose at this moment — I am afraid I am always 
 being led off the point. We will consider it in due time, 
 but now, with your permission, I should like to return to 
 the earlier stages. Will you allow that care for physical 
 well-being is one of the most important structures of 
 morality ? " 
 
 " Important, yes," said Reynolds ; " but hardly essen- 
 tial." 
 
 " Surely essential in the abstract, though a higher 
 height may be scaled under less promising conditions. I 
 think I need hardly detail in full the requisites for a 
 healthy physical training ; I will content myself with 
 mentioning such points as the ventilation, especially of 
 bedrooms, good lighting and warming, constant baths — if 
 possible, cold — the avoidance of overcrowding, nutritious 
 and varied, but, in the main, simple food, attention to 
 teeth and clothing, in particular of the feet, daily physical 
 exercise in the open air, and occasional change of scene. 
 Nor must the influence of companions of a like age be 
 forgotten ; the younger the child, at least after the first 
 few weeks, the more important is this association. It 
 belongs, perhaps, rather to the domain of morals and the 
 intellect than to that of physical education, but even in 
 this sphere the force of example has great results. With 
 the necessity of a healthy and systematic physical training 
 thus premised, not a mere haphazard trusting to chance, 
 we may go on to consider in its stricter sense the aims and 
 meaning of ethical training. 
 
 " Now there are two main aims which, it seems to me, the 
 educator ought always to keep steadily before him. The 
 first is the development of a sense of far-reaching, one may 
 
48 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 almost say unending, responsibility — the recognition of the 
 fact that any action of ours, no matter how trifling, may 
 continue to produce effects for centuries to come, and that 
 our actions, if wrong, may not be punished immediately, 
 but that the punishment, though long delayed, will come 
 at last, borne not always by ourselves ; and the second, 
 the recognition of the importance of our neighbours, I will 
 not say society, in contrast with ourselves. Self -negation 
 and responsibility are the pole-stars of morality ; by them 
 all training must be guided. Were we gifted with a 
 higher sense of our vast responsibility and a greater power 
 of forecasting the outcome of our actions, the world would 
 be far better than it is. I beg you then, through all that 
 I shall say, to see if I conform to my own principles, and 
 to try to bring my practical precepts under one or other of 
 these heads. 
 
 "Now the development of morality begins from the 
 cradle, perhaps even before. Every impression made on 
 the sensorium of a young child leaves an impression for 
 better or for worse, and many even of those acts which 
 seem quite non-moral may have an indirect influence upon 
 a child's way of regarding things. If a child is brought 
 in contact — and what child is not ? — with debasing sights 
 and sounds, sights and sounds which are completely 
 severed from all ideal of beauty, the child's ideals of 
 beauty will also be debased, and so debased, it may be, 
 that of a true ideal no trace will remain. And how large 
 an inlet to high morality, yes, and how pleasant a one, is 
 here closed, perhaps for ever ! Did art but furnish us with 
 merely innocent forms of pleasure, that would be a vast 
 deal in this world — for the mass of evil is done in pursuit 
 of pleasures that are but grovelling ; if all the world had 
 hobbies to occupy their spare time, evil would be much 
 less. Let us then strive, when we bring a helpless infant 
 into this world, to accustom it unconsciously to beautiful 
 sights and sounds ; let it from the first have round it 
 nothing but what ennobles ; there is then some hope that 
 even unconsciously it may grow in mind like what it 
 beholds. Such a requirement demands not only beauty in 
 surrounding objects, but also moral beauty in surrounding 
 persons. Here, you will say, impossibility comes in. But 
 I would beg you to think a little. It is possible for even 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 49 
 
 servants to have ennobling characters ; no pains are 
 surely too great to acquire them." 
 
 " Yes, Dr. Hindley," was Mrs. Reynolds's rejoinder, " in 
 theory it is no doubt very nice ; but have you ever had 
 the trouble of getting your servants? What does Mrs. 
 Hindley say to your proposal ? " 
 
 " I say that much more might be done than is ; but you 
 must be prepared to pay high." 
 
 " But " — Mr. Reynolds once more came to his wife's 
 support — " you have not always got the means to pay." 
 
 " I am surprised, Mr. Reynolds, that one of your pro- 
 fession should raise that difficulty. Self-denial is not 
 unusual with you, I am sure." 
 
 '' It seems to me," my wife said, '^ that you are making 
 good moral education the privilege of the rich." 
 
 " Ah," burst in Mrs. Hindley once more, " now, perhaps, 
 you see why I am a Socialist. I would have no one de- 
 barred from the best the world can offer ; and if Socialism 
 means loss of much of external art and beauty, yet the 
 counterbalancing gain to morality far outweighs it all." 
 
 " It is true," Dr. Hindley went on, " that my plan is 
 not feasible in full detail at present ; but you know 
 my Socialistic views are like my wife's, and if much that 
 I suggest can only be carried out by the help of Socialism, 
 well, I say, take Socialism with morality rather than the 
 present constitution without. We have undoubtedly from 
 the first to face the difficult question of allowing children 
 to have contact with servants at all, and the remedy I 
 would suggest will, no doubt, be too heroic for you — the 
 mother should have the sole charge of her children and 
 never leave them to a nurse." 
 
 Now I could see the storm was coming. My wife at once 
 impetuously said, " Quite impossible ! " while Mrs. 
 Reynolds asked, " But what is to become of the house ? " 
 
 At this question the Doctor smiled, as he answered : — 
 
 " Leave the house to servants and your children to 
 yourselves. It is entirely a question of comparative 
 values : if the house is of more value, choose that ; if the 
 child, choose that." 
 
 " No, Doctor," I put in, " the question is not so simple. 
 You evidently are biassed, filled with an unjust suspicion 
 of all save those who have had as good a bringing-up as 
 
 E 
 
50 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 yon have yourself. I fear at the bottom of your proposal 
 lies, if not class-hatred, at all events a certain amount of 
 class-suspicion and contempt." 
 
 " I pray God not," said the Doctor earnestly, " though it 
 is impossible for any man to fathom his own mind. But I 
 do most urgently plead for more personal attention on the 
 part of parents to their children — more self-sacrifice, more 
 direct study of their characters and interests." 
 
 " But," went on my wife, " no woman can do everything. 
 And if the eye of the mistress is not over all, nothing but 
 confusion and misery will result. How would you like it, 
 pray, yourself, if Mrs. Hindley gave up her whole time 
 and energy to washing, teaching, playing with your 
 children, and left the house alone ? " 
 
 " I am proud to say that my wife does very nearly that 
 now." 
 
 '' And do you enjoy it ? " 
 
 " I am proud of my wife beyond measure, and as for the 
 lesser things — my own comfort, to wit — well, I can put up 
 with much in what I know is a good cause." 
 
 " I think you are rather giving me away, my dear," 
 said Mrs. Hindley. "Really, Mrs. Trelawney, I think 
 you would not find much amiss in our house. Of course 
 it is harder work for me, and deprives me of a good deal 
 of social pleasure ; but I would far rather that should 
 happen than feel I was not doing my very utmost for my 
 children. People are so unreasonable, not to say inhuman ; 
 they offer from £14 to £20 a year for a servant, and 
 expect a paragon to undertake the most dull and slaving 
 work that can, perhaps, be found in the world. And how 
 many mistresses ever think at all of the interests of their 
 servants, physical, mental, or moral ? I am talking now, 
 you will understand, of ordinary middle-class people who 
 have no money to throw away. What I say is this : if, in- 
 stead of keeping a nurse, you would put some of her wages 
 into the pockets of a good housekeeper, you would get a 
 valuable servant to whom you could without fear entrust 
 almost all the household affairs. One other pair of hands 
 to relieve yourself, if so it must be, of the more menial 
 duties in connection with your children, and the task is 
 solved; you will have your house in perfect order, and 
 your own energies to spare for those to whom they are due. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 5 I 
 
 As it is, we woineii spoil our husbands, leading them to 
 regard themselves as the very lords of earth, and making 
 them into dissatisfied brutes if they have not every luxury 
 they might expect in a palace. Till women maintain that 
 they also have souls, we can expect nothing better." 
 
 We were all rather amused at this sally, and Mrs. 
 Reynolds was clearly puzzled. I laughed and said : — 
 
 '' There, Hindley, now we know your character ; you are 
 a dissatisfied brute. My dear," I said, turning to my 
 wife, and holding up a threatening finger, " don't you ever 
 let me catch you at such tricks ; I am not a Socialist. A 
 schoolmaster expects his bread and butter cut for tea, 
 whether there are children with claims or not." 
 
 " Don't you trouble yourself ; if ever I do let the house 
 run itself, you are none the wiser." 
 
 At this the others laughed, and I went on : — 
 
 " Well, I am not a schoolmaster at home, and so cannot 
 be sure of obedience. But, seriously, I do think you ask 
 too much, Doctor Hindley. To begin with, a woman, 
 if she is to keep herself fresh, wants a holiday from her 
 children, and then what is to be done with them ? But 
 even apart from that, the conventions of society cannot be 
 entirely over-ridden " 
 
 "Why not? Every reformer is met by the same 
 answer — It is impossible ! Have but the courage of your 
 opinions and try. We suffer so much because we are all 
 cowards. Some one must start a reform, and why not you 
 as well as another ? And in the interests of our children 
 it is vital to keep them out of our servants' way ; they 
 harm them alike physically, morally, and intellectually." 
 
 " I grant the harm, especially the intellectual harm," 
 I said. " That often seems to me the most serious, because 
 the moral harm, which is chiefly encouraging disobedience 
 or preventing a punishment having its full effect, can be 
 easily counteracted where the parents possess, as should 
 always be the case, the real love of their child. Servants 
 seldom have a direct interest in deliberately fostering the 
 worse traits of children. But the intellectual harm of 
 implanting in their minds all sorts of foolish ideas, 
 especially idle and dangerous superstitions, which often, 
 too, run into the moral domain, takes years of eradication, 
 and is often not eradicated at all. The danger has long 
 
52 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 since been noticed : Locke, for instance, is full of it. But 
 still, I do not see how you are to conquer it." 
 
 " The first and better way is that which I have already 
 laid down — take the care of your children out of your 
 servants' hands entirely." 
 
 " I would it were possible," said Reynolds, with a sigh ; 
 " but I must confess I agree with the majority here that 
 it is impossible." 
 
 " Don't talk to me of impossible," said the Doctor, 
 with a sudden display of warmth ; " nothing is impos- 
 sible." 
 
 " Not even to make a man into a woman, or vice versd ? " 
 I asked slily. 
 
 Here the Doctor smiled, and he resumed more calmly : — 
 
 " Well, if you will not follow the better way, take the 
 other." 
 
 » Which is ? " 
 
 " To educate and pay your servants properly, and show 
 some human interest in them, even though they be but 
 servants." 
 
 I was resolved not to notice the sneer in this remark, 
 the more so as I knew it to be in general justified, so 
 rather turned the conversation in another direction, say- 
 ing :— 
 
 " That brings me, Doctor, to a consideration I want to 
 urge, namely this— you yourself the other day said some- 
 thing like it — you cannot get progress along one line 
 alone. We are supposed to be discussing moral education, 
 yet constantly we are diverging into other branches. It 
 18 one of the lessons I have to be preaching daily, that 
 everything one does affects everything else. Boys will 
 not believe it, but so it is. And hence it seems to me 
 that your endeavour to lay down a clear line of advance 
 for moral education is liable to be upset, if by nothing 
 else, at least fatally by this — that you do not allow 
 sufficiently for the requisite advance in intellectual 
 development and power, and, above all, for the necessary 
 concomitant — I will not say quite equal — advance of all 
 sections of society at once. You seem to have an ideal for 
 the middle class before your eyes, but forget how much 
 depends upon the action of classes who will be quite shut 
 out from participation in the benefits you sketch. These 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 53 
 
 two difficulties go far to make shipwreck of your whole 
 scheme." 
 
 " I heartily trust not," was the Doctor's reply, " though 
 I grant that difficulties, great difficulties, they are. Not 
 difficulties, however, in the way of the theory as a theory, 
 but merely as a project that is feasible at once. That my 
 proposals could be carried into instant practice without a 
 violent revolution, I do not claim ; but I do claim this, 
 that they are worth consideration, and that some of them, 
 at all events, might be adopted without such great dis- 
 location of the social machinery as you all seem to fear. 
 I, though in theory a Socialist, in one at least of the senses 
 of that much abused term, yet should hold myself to be 
 as a scientific man disgraced if I did not know that 
 changes are most effective when gradual ; and were a 
 cataclysm to come and carry out my reforms at one sudden 
 stroke, I should do nothing but tremble for the permanence 
 of the new arrangements. None the less is an ideal 
 valuable because it is impracticable. We are so im- 
 mersed in the ordinary aspect of things around us, that 
 it requires a violent shock to make us lift up our eyes and 
 see — to turn from the darkness of Plato's cavern, where 
 we but watch shadows, to the full light of the real sun. 
 This, then, must be my excuse for laying before you a 
 series of propositions which you all unite in condemning, 
 though of this one point I certainly feel proud : that well- 
 nigh all your objections, so far, have rested upon the fact 
 that my proposals are impracticable, not upon their in- 
 trinsic undesir ability." 
 
 "Yes," said Reynolds quietly; "and I, as one who 
 looks for a nobler world to come than any we have yet seen, 
 will at least say this, that your ideal in most respects 
 seems to me a grand one, and that even an approach to 
 its realization would do much to help forward Christ's 
 work upon earth." 
 
 " But to return to our point," resumed the Doctor. " I 
 abandon all hope of converting you to the feasibility of at 
 present getting mothers to do their primary duty — for 
 primary duty it surely is. What business have women to 
 be mothers at all if they cannot discharge their maternal 
 duties? There is an old and admirable saying, — 'No 
 rights without duties,' and when we consider what the 
 
54 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 rights and privileges of a parent are, can we look upon 
 any duties as too heavy to undertake in return for that 
 great honour ? It makes me wild to see how young men 
 and women rush into marriage and make themselves 
 parents in the blindest haste, without a minute's thought 
 of their power to discharge the most sacred and respon- 
 sible duty in the world — without ever from their birth 
 to — I had almost said — the day of their death giving one 
 real, conscientious moment's thought to what is the best 
 way to meet the awful responsibility every parent will 
 incur. But I must not dwell upon this or I shall never 
 end. Let me only repeat that I still hold, whatever you 
 may think to the contrary, that a mother's first duty 
 is plain — to sacrifice everything for the sake of her child. 
 However, I will proceed. 
 
 " I think we have now surveyed suflficiently what I 
 may call the outside of a good moral training. Let us 
 now turn to the child himself and see what we can make 
 of him. But here I would beg you to look upon my 
 remarks as far more tentative than the foregoing ; for I 
 have not made, I am sorry to say, that direct and personal 
 study of childhood from its earliest hours, which is really 
 essential to an adequate attempt to devise a scheme of 
 moral training. My reading too on the point has been 
 desultory, and several of the books I have taken up do not 
 seem to me of very much profit from the point of view of 
 actual practice." 
 
 " There I can bear you out," I said. " Works expressly 
 treating of moral education are comparatively few, and 
 those which I have read — and I have read all that I could 
 lay my hands on — are in many cases merely vague dilu- 
 tions of well-known precepts, old, I had almost said, as 
 the hills. The most striking I have found is a recent 
 work to which we have already alluded, that by Professor 
 Felix Adler, which is certainly of very great use. Still 
 it is fair to remember that almost every work on general 
 education treats more or less of the moral side. This 
 treatment, it is true, is sometimes indirect ; but in the 
 great writers you may pick up many valuable thoughts, 
 albeit their suggestions are not always systematic." 
 
 "Ah," said Dr. Hindley, "it is clear I shall have a 
 shrewd critic in you. But you must be merciful, for I am 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 55 
 
 but an untrained novice trying his hand at a work be- 
 yond him." 
 
 " Oh, never fear me, I am only too glad to learn. My 
 forte does not lie in suggesting new ideas, or even in 
 Criticising old ; what I like is to try to improve my methods 
 in the light of suggestions from any source." 
 
 "That is good ; I shall work with less fear. Now the 
 first thing that strikes me is this : We can learn far 
 more from badly-trained children than from those whose 
 rearing has been more fortunate." 
 
 " That sounds odd," said my wife. 
 
 " It is a well-known fact in science that an experiment 
 which fails often teaches you more than one that succeeds. 
 Now if we look at what we call with such truth a spoilt 
 child, what feature should we say is the most prominent ? " 
 
 " Self-will," suggested Mrs. Reynolds. 
 
 " Precisely. The will is everything. But as we cannot 
 manipulate the will all at once — it is a very complex 
 factor— we must go deeper and enquire what is the 
 essential ingredient in the quality we usually call self- 
 will — what has been neglected so as to produce the result 
 we so often see. I wish I knew psychology better ; it 
 would simplify our enquiry so much. Is there no one 
 here who can lead the way? Surely, Mr. Trelawney, 
 you are an expert in psychology, being an Oxford man 
 first and then a schoolmaster." 
 
 I could not help smiling as I replied : — 
 
 " I fear my Oxford psychology is rather rusty with age, 
 and as for my profession of necessity involving a know- 
 ledge of psychology, why, my compeers would think me 
 utterly daft if I studied the science because I teach." 
 
 Dr. Hindley opened his eyes and said : — 
 
 "Do you really mean to tell me that you schoolmasters 
 do not hold psychology to be essential to your knowledge 
 of your profession ? " 
 
 " Certainly I do. We in England are above such 
 things — so most of us say — though for my own part there- 
 is nothing I regret so much as that when I left Oxford I 
 could not go to a training college where I might have 
 made practical my abstract knowledge of psychology. 
 But at that time such a place was not in existence save 
 for the teachers of elementary schools ; and even now, I 
 
56 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 believe, there is only one * of them, and that dragging on 
 but a feeble life. Women, however, are better off." 
 
 " Well, I can only say I am amazed. Now I under- 
 stand why the elementary schoolmasters seem to do the 
 mere teaching so much better than you. No, I cannot get 
 over it. It seems to me like a man setting up for a doctor 
 whose knowledge of anatomy is the surface of his own 
 person. You know I pursued my studies for a long time 
 in Germany, in a town which, though small, had a good 
 University, and I know that there such a confession 
 would have awakened the surprise, not to say scorn, of 
 every teacher in the place. To the Germans a thorough 
 training in psychology as applicable to education is es- 
 sential before a man is allowed to teach at all. But here 
 it seems I must rely upon myself, though I hope, Tre- 
 lawney, that even your amateurish knowledge — though 
 I really suspect it is better than you admit — will serve 
 at times to keep me straight. 
 
 '' To return to the point of self-will once more. What 
 defect has there been in a child's training whose most promi- 
 nent characteristic is self-will ? I imagine there will be no 
 hesitation in the answer — he has not learnt obedience. 
 Yet here is the cardinal virtue of all. Without obedience 
 what were man ? Man who is born to suffer and to die 
 can only make life endurable by self-renunciation ; to 
 attain that end he must learn obedience even from his 
 first breath. Obedience is well-nigh the only virtue 
 which a child can learn from the very beginning. The 
 youngest child has desires and commands; woe to the 
 mother who cannot tell when those commands are lawful, 
 when they are not ! Through all her after-life her present 
 joy will be her curse. Even the infant can become im- 
 perious and exact obedience more servile than any king. 
 It may be hard to refuse one seemingly so helpless, but 
 the lesson must be learnt. And here once more we face 
 nature's terrible complexity : if the parents are not wise 
 with moral wisdom, their children will not be well brought 
 up ; the evil will spread from age to age, only to be 
 checked by influences brought to bear from outside — 
 influences which must be fortuitous, more or less. Let 
 us then insist, as at the proper time I propose to do 
 * This remark now no longer holds good. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 57 
 
 in detail, on the training of the young in a parent's duties, 
 hoping to avoid by this means the worst of elementary 
 blunders. 
 
 "For methods of enforcing obedience it is impossible 
 to lay down perfect abstract laws. One caution, however, 
 may be of use — command as little as may be and forbid 
 as little as you can. Let the training to obedience come 
 rather indirectly by way of suggestion, by appeals to 
 a child to act from love for you." 
 
 " But," interrupted my wife, " surely that cannot do 
 with quite young children; they cannot realize love for 
 their parents." 
 
 " That, Mrs. Trelawney, is a hard saying. I do not 
 think we any of us know the full extent of a speechless 
 infant's love for those around it. But I understand your 
 position, and admit that I have run on too far and con- 
 fused distinct points. I was thinking at the moment 
 of children with intelligence appreciably developed, who 
 could understand, if they refused to act for you, why you 
 refused to act for them. Such an appeal would be lost on 
 the very young, to whom I ought to have confined my 
 remarks. For the very young then, say those of less than 
 two years, I would propose that we should act by sugges- 
 tion, not directly, taking trouble to keep them, so far as 
 we can, out of the reach of wrong desires ; and where that 
 is impossible, as often it will be, diverting their attention 
 to other things. Here nature has been merciful and helps 
 us greatly ; for a young child is so constituted that he 
 can easily be led by appropriate objects to forget a thing 
 even of keen desire. ' Prevention is better than cure,' 
 is a maxim of more weight in matters moral than in any 
 other sphere of human life." 
 
 " I remember," said my wife, " a case which Locke 
 relates of a mother who, on her child's return from nursing, 
 had to whip her no less than eight times before she would 
 obey. Whenever I read the passage my heart bleeds." 
 
 " And mine too, Mrs. Trelawney, for I know the place 
 you mean. Yet for all one's suffering one must not flinch." 
 
 " Does it not often seem to you that one is readiest to 
 punish those for whom one's love is greatest ? I know," 
 I said, " for my own part that I am severest upon those 
 boys who are my favourites at school, however much I try 
 
58 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 to keep an even hand. It is so mucli greater pain to see 
 those whom one loves do wrong than those about whom 
 one is comparatively indifferent, that I fear we act from 
 a sort of blind revenge, to return the pain we have been 
 made to suffer." 
 
 " That is a curious theory," said Eeynolds ; " but after 
 all the mere fact is very near that grand old saying of 
 the Bible — to my thinking one of the greatest sources 
 of consolation to be found in the whole of it — ' Whom the 
 Lord loveth He chasteneth.' " 
 
 " I am afraid the theory or the practice does not hold 
 good of all, or indeed of the majority," said Mrs. Hindley. 
 
 " No, alas ! no," the Doctor resumed ; '' otherwise my 
 hatred of even necessary punishment would not be so 
 strong as it is. But whether painful or not, insistence 
 on obedience is for a parent the supreme necessity." 
 
 " Would you say so even when a rule is absurd ? " 
 
 "I wonder that you as a schoolmaster can ask such 
 a question. You must know too well the results of 
 neglecting to enforce a command, even though it is in- 
 judicious or wrong to begin with. Of course I am not 
 considering the case where the commander has changed 
 his opinion before the command is carried out. I remember 
 an instance which well illustrates the difficulty into 
 which a man may put himself by an unwise command. 
 At a large day-school, just before the Easter holidays, a 
 father applied for his boy to leave school on the Tuesday 
 in Holy Week instead of on the Thursday, the day fixed 
 for breaking up, because he was going to Rome for 
 Easter and was anxious to take his son with him. The 
 boy was in the top form but one, and bore an exceedingly 
 good character ; yet the head-master refused the leave. 
 As an outsider, I think he was extremely injudicious, but 
 that is not to the point ; doubtless you would decide other- 
 wise. What followed ? The father took his son all the 
 same, and as a natural and inevitable consequence, the 
 boy was not allowed to return to the school — was, one 
 may say, practically expelled. What would have hap- 
 pened to that head-master had he let the boy return ? 
 After his first refusal no other course was open ; and so 
 it is with a parent who gives a young child an order, 
 even though that order be not a wise one. And here 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 59 
 
 once more comes in the need of a wise training on the 
 part of the parent. I have often and often seen stupid 
 orders given which have directly fostered disobedience, 
 through the difficulty, and in some cases the real im- 
 possibility, to a conscientious child of carrying them out. 
 And not merely must we avoid such impossible orders, 
 we must further be quite sure that the child understands 
 exactly what he has to do. Often and often this is not 
 the case, and then when we punish we are considered — 
 and really are — cruel and unjust. We cannot be too 
 careful to think all round a question before we take an 
 irrevocable step. These dangers occur more in the case 
 of children of some growth, but there is an analogous 
 danger with those quite young — that of being capricious, 
 now forbidding and now allowing precisely the same 
 thing. We must school ourselves to keep the even tenor 
 of our way, turning neither to right hand nor to left. 
 And we must remember to make allowance for the natural 
 instincts of childhood — I am thinking in especial of what 
 is a great torment to us elders, but inevitable in a healthily 
 developing child— fidgetiness, restlessness, and a constant 
 desire to be experimenting on something new. If we forbid 
 movement and a change of occupation, we are not training 
 the child by healthy discipline, but are inflicting on it a 
 torture which makes it resent our rule, and besides 
 sometimes hindering the free development of the body, we 
 may also permanently mark the mind with the curse of 
 peevishness or nervous irritability. And the folly of it is 
 that this tendency to restlessness dies — without execution 
 — as the years go on. This is, in fact, a feature too often 
 neglected, that a vast number of faults eliminate them- 
 selves as the child matures, so that we are often wasting 
 time to less than no purpose in trying to eradicate them 
 before nature has ordained it, to the sore trial and some- 
 times permanent damage of the tempers of our children 
 as well as of ourselves." 
 
 " I am afraid. Dr. Hindley," put in Reynolds, " that 
 your millennium recedes as we go further. You expect us 
 poor parents to be perfect — surely too much to expect of 
 any one." 
 
 " Yes, I am like Plato, and expect that my guardians 
 shall be perfect, to secure which end I shall spare no pains 
 
6o MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 in their training. But now that we have dealt with the 
 primary virtue of obedience and recognised that it must 
 be emphasized even in minute particulars from the cradle 
 onwards, let us turn to the next point which is most con- 
 venient to discuss — habit." 
 
 " Your order is peculiar, Doctor," I interrupted. " Why 
 should you take habit now ? Does it not apply equally 
 well to obedience? For my own part I should have 
 thought one of two courses was open to you — either to 
 take it first as the general aim of all our discussion, or to 
 treat it last, as a focus for suggestions already made." 
 
 " I admit the justice of your charge," the Doctor said ; 
 " but you remember I disclaimed being a systematic philo- 
 sopher. I only utter my thoughts as they happen to occur, 
 and I do not think it matters much where habit comes in 
 our discussion. But I really had a reason for treating it 
 just here, which was that obedience can begin when the 
 child is almost unconscious, whereas consciousness seems 
 required to co-operate to some extent in the true forma- 
 tion of moral habit." 
 
 " Surely not," I said ; " habits may be reflex and auto- 
 matic — not consciously formed at all." 
 
 " True, but you remember I said * seems to be required.' 
 And though I admit the spontaneous formation of many 
 habits, still in morality, our special subject now, the co- 
 operation of the will is so imperatively required for healthy 
 development, that I think we may leave out of view this 
 unconscious formation. But even my language is, I feel, 
 to a certain extent ambiguous. I mean by conscious for- 
 mation of habit, not that we necessarily set ourselves to 
 watch every step in a habit's growth, but that our general 
 development is such that the reflecting powers can, if 
 needful, be, and indeed frequently are, brought to bear 
 upon the formation of the habit, so that the child being 
 trained can be made to see, only vaguely perhaps at first, 
 but more and more clearly as time advances, both that a 
 habit is being formed and how it can itself help or hinder 
 the process. And I would say this, that it is a good 
 thing to enlist as much as may be the child's active co- 
 operation, by explaining to him the desirability of the end 
 and the best method of its attainment. People are much 
 too afraid of explaining why they give particular orders. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 6 1 
 
 Sometimes I believe they really think that blind obedience 
 is preferable to obedience with knowledge, against which 
 I can only urge that if their law had been always followed 
 we should still be slaves to savage chieftains; at other 
 times I think they refuse to give reasons because they 
 have a half idea that, if they came to argue them out, 
 they would find their own positions untenable. But 
 whether they have such a feeling or not, at least they save 
 themselves a great deal of trouble if they lay down a law 
 without reasons assigned. But think what a revolution 
 in practice we should have if every one, before giving 
 injunctions or advice, were really to thoroughly go over 
 to himself the grounds on which he would base his pro- 
 cedure ! This step alone would go far to raise the moral 
 tone of the world ; we should no longer be ' like dumb, 
 driven cattle,' but should each be using for its noblest 
 purpose the gift that shows closest our affinity with God." 
 
 " Do you know what George Eliot says somewhere ? " 
 said Mrs. Hindley : — " ' Reason about everything with your 
 child, you make him a monster, without reverence, without 
 affections.' " 
 
 " Very true," I chimed in, " and I may say that I have 
 tried the principle at school, but am by no means satisfied 
 with the result. Often I have secured a more willing 
 obedience, and the special fault in that boy has vanished 
 for ever ; but at other times I have met with casuistical 
 answers, and I have dreaded to expose the whole basis of 
 my action for fear of encouraging the spirit of casuistry 
 and unsettling, by failing to convince, the whole founda- 
 tion of a boy's morality. Hence I have dropped my argu- 
 ment, appearing to be defeated — with what results I leave 
 you to conceive. Children are not as grown men ; the 
 latter you can sometimes make recognise their bias and 
 allow for it accordingly, but children are so full of their 
 own wisdom that this, combined with their self-interest, 
 will lead them to stifle the voice of reason which in an 
 older person might perhaps be heard. And if you ask me, 
 I would say further that it is precisely this difficulty 
 which seems to me the most serious that can be brought 
 against the attempt to teach morality at all — so serious, 
 indeed, that I am by no means yet convinced that it is 
 wise even to make the attempt." 
 
62 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " That is a large question which I will not argue now. 
 Doubtless it will crop up again in the course of our discus- 
 sion, so will you allow me to postpone it for the present ? 
 If the answer does not suggest itself as we go on, I think, 
 at all events, we shall be in a better position for consider- 
 ing it when I have set forth my project in full. If a 
 lengthy discussion should then be needed I will not 
 shrink ; but I hope and trust none will be required. 
 Meantime I would say in reply to what I grant is a 
 weighty objection, first, that if George Eliot says, ' Use 
 reason always, and you make your child a moral monster,' 
 we can retort, ' Use reason never and you make him a 
 moral idiot ' ; secondly, that the difficulty lies entirely 
 in the method after which you deal with your subject in 
 hand. And, further, it is greater in the present attitude 
 of teachers towards the discussion of moral questions than 
 it would be if the reforms I am now suggesting become 
 part and parcel of their daily work. For then, with moral 
 problems carefully chosen and adapted, the children would 
 take them as a matter of course, and being accustomed to 
 deal with moral difficulties would not be so ready to 
 believe themselves infallible. By the time they were of 
 age to discuss any of those points where at first they 
 might think their own view really weighty, they would 
 have come to recognise that morality was part of a vast 
 complex whole, and that if they disturbed even one small 
 particle of it there was likely to result a disturbance to 
 the whole, ending perhaps in incalculable harm. And I 
 should like to ask you this, Trelawney, whether you do 
 not exaggerate the likelihood of children developing the 
 casuistical spirit. My own experience — limited, I grant, 
 to my own children — has led me to believe that the young 
 are in the main very ready to accept those views of morality 
 which they find habitually held by those around them, 
 especially when they are urged by one for whom they feel 
 true love and respect. Have you not found that to be so 
 too?" 
 
 " At times, yes, and indeed not unfrequently ; but then 
 you must remember that a schoolmaster's position differs 
 essentially from a parent's : you cannot expect him to be 
 loved by his boys as a parent is loved and revered by his 
 children." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 63 
 
 " Eeally, Trelawney, if I thought you always spoke the 
 genuine beliefs of members of your craft, and were not 
 often playing advocatus diaboli, my opinion of your pro- 
 fession would sink to low depths. I do not see at all 
 why a schoolmaster should not be as much beloved and 
 revered by his boys as a parent, albeit the love and 
 reverence differ in kind. You will remember that I had 
 this point in view when from the first I laid down that 
 the school must be only of such a size as will allow each 
 master to have something of this feeling developed towards 
 him by every boy. The Port-Royalists tried this and 
 achieved a mighty work ; why should not all ? And 
 surely a schoolmaster can compensate for disadvantages 
 by the greater awe which he inspires as compared with a 
 parent. That the schoolmaster has often a greater in- 
 fluence than the parent I will not urge, because you may 
 say I am taking exceptions and not the rule." 
 
 "But I still think that the danger of evoking the 
 casuistical spirit in however few is sufficiently great to 
 make it unwarrantable, even in the interests of the 
 majority, to give any opening for such a result." 
 
 " That is a serious argument, but there are two answers. 
 First, we are laying down a law for the general mass. I 
 debarred myself from using an argument just now because 
 you might retort that it was based on exceptional cases, 
 and I think in fairness you ought to renounce the same 
 advantage. But inasmuch as your argument is based 
 upon a moral danger, I will not press that point, but 
 give my other reply, which is this, that whoever teaches 
 morality must be alive to all the dangers, and if he sees 
 any likelihood of so undesirable a result accruing as you 
 fear, he must change his line of attack and show the 
 wisdom of an able general combined with the loving care 
 of one whose whole interests are a pure morality. In this 
 point, as in every other, the result will depend upon the 
 individual ; and though mistakes unhappily cannot always 
 be avoided by us imperfect men, we must do our best in all 
 honesty and love and be content to leave the result to God." 
 
 "Doctor," said Mr. Reynolds, "I think your position 
 shows that you quite leave out of account in the moral 
 world what to me is the most important factor in it — the 
 necessity of faith." 
 
64 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " What do you mean by faith ? If you mean by it the 
 assurance that there are more things in heaven and earth 
 than are dreamt of in our philosophy, then I should be 
 sorry indeed to admit your accusation. If, however, you 
 mean that we must be prepared to believe many things for 
 which no evidence can be produced and which are entirely 
 contrary, I do not say to our knowledge of nature at 
 present — which is a poor argument — but to our very 
 moral sense, even the moral sense of those most highly 
 gifted with it, then most certainly I leave out all reference 
 to faith, and with the greatest joy. But that faith in the 
 sense of taking some things on trust is essential to any 
 real morality of character, I most fully admit ; but what 
 things are to be taken on trust is another matter alto- 
 gether." 
 
 " You are on dangerous ground. Doctor, talking of the 
 moral sense," I said. " If you had a professed philosopher 
 here I fear you might be pounded into dust." 
 
 "Let us be thankful then that we have no such 
 dangerous foe at hand. But we shall see later in what 
 sense I consider faith to be essential, and then I hope Mr. 
 Reynolds will raise his question again. Has any one else 
 anything to say about giving children reasons for rules 
 before I proceed to other points ? " 
 
 "Yes," said my wife. "It seems to me that your 
 insistence on the necessity of reasoning and being able 
 ourselves to explain our grounds of action on every occa- 
 sion itself does away with the necessity of forming habits, 
 on which you were so strong a short time ago. If we are 
 always to fall back upon reason, why try to form habits 
 at all?" 
 
 "It is clear," said the Doctor, laughing, " that the 
 country is most unfavourable for the even and steady flow 
 of the stream of my argument ; but I must not complain. 
 Till now it has had a fairly smooth course ; little rocks 
 have appeared here and there, just serving to give 
 picturesqueness to the scenery. But now I have met 
 with such a combination of obstacles that my waters 
 must either rest and collect till they rise to such a height 
 as to flow over them — a course undignified for a noble 
 river — or, despite their apparently immovable mass, they 
 must sweep them away altogether ; or finally, they must, 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 6$ 
 
 to their great sorrow and loss of labour, turn aside and 
 find a smoother channel." 
 
 " No, Doctor, I should think you ought not to complain 
 indeed," said Rejmolds ; " you talk of slight obstacles — I 
 should say your current had swept through awful gorges 
 without swerving one hair's breadth." 
 
 " Well, I suppose I must address myself to this last of 
 impediments. So you think, Mrs. Trelawney, that I am 
 self -contradictory. It is a serious charge even against one 
 who does not profess to be a philosopher, but I hope to show 
 that it is unfounded. In the first place I would say that 
 you cannot yourself be sure of your moral position, unless 
 it is based on a habit of right acting ; secondly, because 
 you, when full-grown and responsible, ought always to be 
 able to give the grounds on which you act, does it there- 
 fore follow that your pupil may not learn through habit 
 first, and only develop later his reasoning faculty ? And, 
 moreover, the fact that to reason is in your power does 
 not necessarily imply that you are to have your moral 
 arguments explicit in your own mind at every turn ; time 
 may not always allow you to reason — habit is there for 
 use in emergencies. The mass of life consists of routine, 
 and the mass of morality consequently is the same. The 
 value of habit, in short, is twofold : it saves waste expendi- 
 ture of thought and labour, and it secures far greater , ,. 
 certainty of aim. It is like a machine as contrasted with ■ ')^^^ 
 a man; the former will work with perfect precision to-- j 
 wards the end for which it was made, the latter is liable I ^^"^ 
 to hesitate and blunder — to break out suddenly into ir- < v^ 
 regularity." 
 
 " But," my wife went on, '*is not that precision itself a 
 danger ? In cases which differ from the normal type to 
 all appearance only slightly, the force of habit may be so 
 great as to obscure the difference and lead one astray." 
 
 " And therefore it is that I put a check upon habit by 
 insisting on the proper cultivation of reason. If we are 
 accustomed to apply our reason to every problem as it 
 appears, however unconscious the process may become, we 
 shall still have two principles balancing each other — habit 
 always wanting to do as of old, reason always arising to 
 justify or condemn. In morality, in fact, we shall get a 
 habit of reasoning, than which nothing can be more 
 
 F 
 
66 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 valuable. Now this process I say you cannot begin too 
 early." 
 
 Here Mr. Ee3Tiolds interrupted. " I would rather say, 
 Doctor, that you might begin too early. The best maxim 
 to lay down, I think, would be this : Begin to reason with 
 your children when they have begun it, never before." 
 
 " That principle is good in one way," said the Doctor, 
 " but often we do not know when they really begin. They 
 do not say openly all that they think. Hence, if only you 
 adapt yourself and your arguments to the particular stage 
 of the development of the child, I still maintain my view 
 is the right one — you cannot begin moral reasoning too 
 soon. If a child is first taught to perform his duties 
 mechanically without understanding their reasons and 
 aims — save only in the case of those virtues which, like 
 obedience, rarely conflict with any other, and which, if 
 they do, as a rule show clearly what is after all the right 
 course to adopt — one of two evils is likely to happen when 
 at last the child reaches the independent years : he will 
 either, from not understanding the grounds on which he 
 finds that, while some acts are still tabooed, others he 
 may now do, come to the conclusion that morality is con- 
 ventional and kick over the traces altogether ; or, which 
 is perhaps the commoner case, remain all his life the slave 
 of others' opinions, with no light by which to trace his 
 own path. The latter is the state of the world at large,^ 
 but of the former I have marked a rising danger where 
 perhaps you might least expect to find it — in our public 
 schools. In the hope of checking other serious evils the 
 modern theory seems to be that it is good to provide some 
 forced occupation, not in itself of necessity unpleasant, to 
 cover the whole of a boy's time. This result follows : the 
 boy, not having time for reflection and self-development, 
 goes out into life without a compass to guide, or else he 
 becomes a mere hall-marked commodity, one of a pattern 
 with no stamp of his own. One of the most famous of our 
 younger public schools seems to me especially to tend in this 
 direction. I grieve deeply to see it ; for to sap the indepen- 
 dence of a growing spirit leads to infinite harm to the 
 whole State. This, indeed, I regard as the most serious 
 evil which threatens our modern educational system." 
 
 " Doctor," I said, '' I must take exception to one remark 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 6/ 
 
 you made in passing — that obedience rarely conflicts with 
 other virtues, or that if it does the right is easy to discern. 
 Surely all history is against you. Still the question is 
 trivial for our present purpose, and I will not press the 
 point. It would probably lead us too far astray." 
 
 " I am glad you are merciful, for I find thorns enough 
 without going out of my way to seek them. I grant I 
 may have put the remark too strongly, but you know an 
 advocate to make an impression has always to exaggerate 
 the points of his case. But having undergone so severe a 
 heckling I hope I may now have a little peace ; may I ask 
 if there is any other objection any lady or gentleman still 
 wishes to raise ? Come, Mrs. Reynolds, all have attacked 
 me, I think, except you ; have you not got something to 
 say ? Or am I so lucky as to have made one convert ? " 
 
 " I cannot quite say that," replied Mrs. Re3molds with 
 a smile, " but I have nothing to add to the objections 
 already urged, and to my mind, I must say, only half 
 answered." 
 
 At this we all laughed, and my wife, saying : " You see, 
 Dr. Hindley, silence does not always show consent," rose 
 to leave, followed by the ladies. We settled ourselves 
 down to wine and a smoke, and after a minute's pause the 
 Doctor resumed. 
 
 " You know I do feel most strongly on that question of 
 absorbing a boy's whole time. I know it is done from 
 noble objects, but it seems to me, though you may think 
 me reckless in saying so, too heavy a price to pay." 
 
 "But what would you do?" said Reynolds. "Surely 
 nothing can be more than it is good to pay in order to 
 master the demon of impurity. And what other remedy 
 would you suggest ? " 
 
 "Ah, that is the difficulty. But you know the evil 
 does not always begin at school. It is often fostered by 
 bad home arrangements, due to mere ignorance or the 
 thoughtlessness of parents. It arises in the first instance 
 from the inquisitiveness of children, and in the case of the 
 very young might be left to cure itself, were it not that 
 the passion roused, being one of the strongest, tends to 
 gather strength with enormous rapidity and is fed by the 
 least thought which runs that way. In this respect I 
 think it is unique among our passions ; there is no other, 
 
68 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 I believe, which can be excited so thoroughly by mere 
 thought. Hence the peculiar difficulty of treatment, and 
 hence, too, the reason why many noble men have held that 
 the best way to conquer it is to keep mind and body for 
 ever occupied. But one may urge as against that view 
 that, apart from the arguments used before while the 
 ladies were still in the room, it cannot be said of hard 
 physical work at all events, work even almost to the point 
 of exhaustion, that it prevents the development of the vice 
 in question — and I am not sure that the same does not 
 hold of mental work as well. It is true that, if the body 
 and brain be already in a state of exhaustion, indulgence 
 in this vice will enfeeble the body to a very great degree, 
 and it might be hoped that any one indulging in it would 
 observe the effects and refrain, from the fear of what 
 might follow. But this presupposes that the child has 
 already reached such an age and is of such a disposition 
 as to be able to trace connection between cause and effect ; 
 whereas the seeds of the vice are often sown very early, 
 and have taken firm root before such comparative maturity 
 is reached. Moreover, even supposing the inference is 
 drawn, we cannot be sure of the desired result following. 
 And further, by relying upon this position, we are in 
 danger of undermining the stamina of the race, owing 
 entirely to the ignorance of the individual and our faulty 
 system of attacking the foe. No, I cannot approve the 
 method, though for their motives and courage in facing 
 the problem, its upholders deserve the greatest respect." 
 
 " You trace the evil to home. Doctor," said Mr. Reynolds ; 
 " can you give any cases where you think harm is done by 
 thoughtless domestic arrangements ? " 
 
 " Certainly I can. Nurses often directly and culpably 
 foster the passion in quite young children." 
 
 " In what way ? " 
 
 " The details are not pleasant, and if you do not mind, I 
 would rather not go into them. Every medical man knows 
 much of this subject that he would only too willingly forget 
 if he could. But to proceed. Two children should never 
 be placed in the same bed, and if possible not even in the 
 same room ; or if this is unavoidable, then they should not 
 be left except when they have gone soundly asleep. And 
 I am by no means convinced of the wisdom of bathing 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 69 
 
 even young children in sight of one another. But I feel 
 that all such measures are more avoidance of temptation 
 than real training to pure morality." 
 
 " I think," I said, " to avoid temptation is the chief 
 thing in the cultivation of purity. It is the countless 
 provocations to which the passion is exposed that lead to 
 its enormous and hideous growth. You have yourself, 
 Doctor, suggested how at home we may remove some of the 
 provocations. I could easily add others from the school 
 point of view. It is at boarding-schools that the tempta- 
 tions are most rife, and to me this fact seems one of the 
 most serious charges that can be levelled against them, 
 even with all due allowance for the improvement un- 
 doubtedly made. But as you have already condemned 
 these schools, I will not traverse the ground again. 
 But at day-schools, too, unless teachers are vigilant, there 
 are many incentives and opportunities for impurity. First 
 and foremost stands the undesirable mixture of boys who 
 have passed puberty with boys who have not. Above all 
 things one has to be careful to prevent a big boy taking 
 up with a small one, often with innocent motives at first, 
 though I always fear the result. Again, brief spells of 
 unoccupied time are a fruitful source of harm. There is 
 more of unclean talk during the few minutes in which a 
 master may have either not yet arrived or perhaps quitted 
 the room than in the larger lapses of time when there is 
 abundant opportunity for the boys to start something 
 serious. Finally, the reading of unclean books is the well- 
 head whence flows an unfathomed stream of evil. For much 
 of the harm that has been done in the past, classical litera- 
 ture is to blame. It is unfortunate that much of what 
 scholars assure us is essential for a good knowledge of the 
 classical languages should be so utterly steeped in foulness. 
 Under this condemnation must come even works whose 
 whole result is a lesson in morality, as, for instance, is the 
 case with the Greek tragedians ; for it is, I fear, but too 
 true that a boy, while he may miss the moral lesson ulti- 
 mately conveyed, can hardly fail to understand the filthi- 
 ness of the tales on which the plays are so often based. As 
 the subjects are beyond the experience of the young, but 
 represent a sphere which the grown can comprehend, a 
 grown man may read them and take no harm ; but can we 
 
70 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 therefore say that they will not permanently stain the 
 innocent mind of a poor child ? I look upon it as one of 
 the great incidental gains which a deposition from their 
 supremacy of the classics would bring, that we should 
 have as the staple of a cultured education literatures that 
 could be limited wholly to what is good." 
 
 " But," said E,eynolds, " I do not see that either of you 
 has done anything except to point out what we have to 
 avoid. You have not laid down any educating principle, 
 nor can I see what motive power you will ever get save 
 the one great principle Christ enunciated, * Be ye perfect, 
 even as your Father in heaven is perfect.' " 
 
 " You know religious arguments are for the present 
 excluded," I said ; " but I admit that this subject would 
 give the fairest chance for maintaining that religion is 
 essential to morality. Still I think some suggestions of 
 active measures may be made. I was very much struck 
 by a remark of Dr. Abbott that we are not frank enough 
 in attacking these questions ; less reticence, he argues, 
 would win more results. The reticence is natural, but 
 after long thought I have come to the conclusion Dr. 
 Abbott is right. And the same view is taken by Mrs. 
 Josephine Butler, who shared in the work of her husband 
 at Liverpool, and from many points of view is an authority 
 to be respected. The matter should be tackled in early 
 days at home by father or mother, or even by both. It is 
 partly the feeling that children have that the subject is a 
 forbidden one that makes the fascination. We know that 
 the same principle applies to grown men too ; owing to 
 some unaccountable perversity we often conceive our first 
 desire for a thing when we have learnt that we cannot 
 have it. And with children the tendency is even stronger, 
 owing, I suppose, to their love of experiment ; were we 
 therefore at times to discuss the matter openly, we might 
 kill at least one incentive to impurity. Wholly exclude 
 our children from a knowledge of it, we cannot, unless we 
 cut them off entirely from all intercourse with their 
 fellows, a course for many reasons undesirable ; but 
 if we encourage them to lay open their feelings on the 
 matter we shall have means of guidance ready at hand. 
 For this further fact must always be borne in mind, that 
 children are most ready to take tone from their elders ; if 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 7 1 
 
 we show tLem how much we abhor such things, and as 
 they grow older set forth to them to some extent the 
 serious harm done by indulgence in evil passions, we shall 
 probably touch springs which once set at work will con- 
 tinue to move for ever. At present we are like ostriches ; 
 we put our heads in the sand, and, blinding our eyes, say 
 the danger is past. It is nothing short of moral cowardice, 
 and that on a point most vital to our children's welfare. 
 No father should ever send his child to a boarding-school, 
 no matter how young the child may be, without serious 
 warning in the plainest language on this very point. 
 Proper supervision of dormitories is essential, and by 
 proper I do not mean an unexpected visit at casual 
 moments on the part of a master, but the presence in the 
 room without intermission of some one who can be made 
 really responsible. I am happy to believe that in most 
 cases our monitors can be thoroughly trusted to do their 
 duty; but exceptions, alas! I know occur. The mere 
 occurrence of such exceptions leads me to say: Sweep 
 away the whole system. Separate rooms many authorities 
 condemn, on the ground that the vice may still occur in 
 secret ; but better in secret and alone than as a bad ex- 
 ample to others. Impracticable, no doubt I shall be told, 
 the suggestion is ; but I would reply, as you. Doctor, have 
 done before, that the matter is one entirely of cost, and 
 where education is already so costly, the difference cannot 
 be vital. It is the question of purity beyond all others 
 that makes me agree with your chief points : first, that 
 day-school education is preferable to a boarding-school; 
 and secondly, that joint education of the sexes is one of 
 the greatest and most desirable of reforms. For in the 
 mixing of the sexes there is not the same incentive to 
 what is at the bottom of the whole mischief — filthy talk. 
 It would take a bad boy indeed to raise the subject with 
 girls, though he might have no hesitation with those of 
 his own sex. And this alone would mean that we should 
 guard from evil the vast majority — those, namely, who, 
 not being specially prone to vice, are yet not over strong 
 to resist it, those who would be safe if shielded from 
 temptation, but who fall before the force of attack." 
 
 " Yes," said Eeynolds, " that is a strong argument ; but 
 I should like to know a little more fully how you would 
 
72 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 definitely approach the subject — what kind of arguments 
 you would use to a child." 
 
 " I should base myself first on what I think must be 
 our starting-point in all our moral education of children — 
 the fact that impurity is wrong in itself ; and then as the 
 years of the child permitted, I should start from the 
 analogy of plants and animals, explaining in this way the 
 reproductive process. Then I should point out that mis- 
 use of our powers leads to serious physical harm, apart 
 altogether from the degrading influence exercised on the 
 character of the whole man. What would you say, 
 Doctor ? " 
 
 '' You would have a most unpleasant task." 
 
 " Unpleasantness and duty are not contradictory. But 
 of course I should not go into all the details of physiology, 
 general statements would sufiSce." 
 
 " I am by no means sure," said the Doctor, " that that 
 would not be the wisest way of tackling the difficulty. 
 Still, even then you would have to allow for the fact that 
 men know the right and choose the wrong." 
 
 " Ah, Doctor," I said, smiling, " I could bring that same 
 argument against all the moral training you are pro- 
 posing. We do not look for perfection all at once." 
 
 "There is another point, Trelawney," said Reynolds, 
 " on which you, as a schoolmaster, ought to give us a good 
 opinion. Would you discuss the matter individually with 
 the children, or take them altogether as a school or as a 
 class ? " 
 
 " I think individually." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because it is so unpleasant to deal with the subject 
 before a large number." 
 
 " That is surely rather a cowardly reason." 
 
 " Well, I think you can get a boy to open his heart to 
 you better " 
 
 " No doubt." 
 
 " And you have more chance of working upon him 
 effectually than if you are dealing with a large mass." 
 
 " Is that always true ? " asked Hindley. " Certainly 
 one knows that S3rmpathy or common feeling will some- 
 times intensify itself quite wonderfully, where an in- 
 dividual would be left almost cold." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 73 
 
 " And," added Eeynolds, " there is another danger. If 
 the boy is talked to individually, he is likely from mere 
 curiosity to discuss the matter with his schoolfellows out- 
 side, and they, not having shared in the serious nature of 
 the discussion, will be more or less unimpressed by the 
 whole proceeding, and tend to erase the good effect you 
 may have produced upon the mind of your one boy ; 
 whereas if you deal with the subject in class, all will go 
 away with more or less of the same feelings, and no one 
 will care, in all probability, to raise the subject again ; 
 while if anybody does, scarcely one will dare to treat it 
 with flippancy, owing to the solemn feeling which a good 
 master will have been able to introduce into the whole 
 matter. Boys are easily impressed, and though we often 
 think the good seed thrown away, I am confident it 
 fructifies in the majority of cases. The same thing holds 
 of families with the due qualifications." 
 
 " I must confess," I said, after a moment's thought, " I 
 think you are right. At the same time," I added, " I am 
 firmly convinced from personal experience of the good of 
 discussion with individuals." 
 
 " And I as a clergyman too. But why should that not 
 be supplementary to the other ? It seems to me that if 
 the whole school knows that you have no hesitation in 
 dealing with such matters quite outspokenly and before 
 them all, they will have such a tone on the point in 
 question that there will be no fear of any one, from mere 
 flippant curiosity, prying into anything you may say 
 apart. Hence you will gain the advantage of both 
 methods." 
 
 " Yes," said the Doctor, " I think that would be the 
 wisest way to deal with the matter ; " and I assented. 
 
 After a minute's pause I resumed : — 
 
 " Can you tell us, Hindley, if the same difficulty occurs 
 in the case of girls ? " 
 
 " Girls, too, require instruction in these matters ; but 
 they are much purer-minded, and the instruction for them 
 should aim not so much at safeguarding them against 
 impurity, of which the risk is comparatively slight, but 
 at giving them proper physiological knowledge of the 
 different bodily functions. Yet those who have charge of 
 them should still be very careful in all their arrangements." 
 
74 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " A point occurs to me. How could one treat the sub- 
 ject in a mixed school ? " 
 
 " You mean that you would not like to do so, and I can 
 quite understand. But here again I think, as you your- 
 self were saying, the level of purity would have risen 
 from the mere presence of both sexes. Our feelings on 
 these matters are largely due to custom, and though at 
 the first set-off it might seem strange, I feel convinced 
 both boys and girls would in time come to regard it 
 in the same light as they regarded their other lessons 
 together. After all we have analogies. A clergyman 
 would deal with the subject from his pulpit before a 
 mixed congregation." 
 
 "Hardly," said Reynolds, "with the same frankness 
 that he would use in dealing with the subject before men 
 alone. He could not so well bring home the special faults 
 of each." 
 
 " That is true, and therefore I would say that the 
 general talks to a mixed class require supplementation — 
 the masters speaking specially to the boys, the mistresses 
 speaking specially to the girls. But there is another case 
 very much in point which will give us a clue to what 
 would happen. When the medical schools were first 
 opened to women great fears were expressed that it would 
 tend to lessen the thoroughness of the teaching from the 
 dislike of the teachers to handle certain subjects before a 
 mixed class of young men and young women. There are 
 still, I believe, to be found professors who shrink from 
 that part of their subject with dread ; but the evidence of 
 the mass of those who have tried it seems to prove that so 
 far from having proved a diflS.culty, it has helped, if any- 
 thing, to raise the tone of the teaching. That is a fairly 
 close analogy, and I think may be taken as conclusive." 
 
 " It seems, then, that we have come to this conclusion 
 on this most difficult of all subjects," I said : " we are to 
 take as watchful and large precautions as possible, but 
 are never to shrink from handling the subject openly or in 
 private whenever it seems that good may be done." 
 
 The other two assented, I went on : — 
 
 " I suppose, as we are aiming at an ideal, we need not 
 raise the question what parents would say if they knew 
 our method of procedure." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 75 
 
 Hindley smiled and said : — 
 
 " Why, you always seem afraid of the parent. Of course 
 not. My belief, however, is that he would rather rejoice 
 at our tackling the subject at all than fear further harm. 
 But of course all depends upon the tone we adopt." 
 
 " I think we have already agreed that it is only the 
 men of highest tone in morality who are to handle ethics, 
 at least in schools." 
 
 " Yes, that is my cardinal principle." 
 
 " You have a great many cardinal principles," I said, 
 smiling. '' However, as we have managed to get to some- 
 thing like an agreement on this unpleasant question, 
 happily in the absence of the ladies — which, by the bye, 
 is against our own principle — shall we go and rejoin 
 them ? " 
 
Ill 
 
 WHEN we arrived we found ourselves in the midst of 
 a hot discussion, a battle royal on the question of 
 truth and social conventions. Mrs. Hindley was saying 
 in her dogmatic way : — 
 
 "It is absolutely wrong ; nothing can justify it." 
 
 My wife urged in reply : — 
 
 " Surely it is an instance of your own maxim — in a 
 choice between two evils choose the less. Would you 
 rather give your friend mortal offence by sending down 
 word that you did not want to see her, or gain your pur- 
 pose and yet avoid quarrels by sending a message known 
 to be fictitious ? " 
 
 " If you are so uncharitable as not to wish to see your 
 visitor, you have enough iniquity to answer for without 
 increasing it by an uncalled-for lie. And further, if the 
 message is known to be fictitious, what is the good of 
 sending it at all ? " 
 
 " In a given case your visitor is in doubt." 
 
 " Then you admit a deliberate lie." 
 
 "But what would you do? Take an instance which I 
 know actually occurred. A lady having been left alone 
 one afternoon, thought, as it was getting rather late and 
 she was safely protected from further interruption, she 
 would put her time to a good purpose, and so proceeded to 
 wash her hair. Just in the middle of it aU a visitor is 
 announced. What was she to do ? She sent down word 
 that she was not at home. You would have liked her to 
 say, * I am washing my hair and cannot see you * ! " 
 
 At this there was a general laugh, and Mrs. Reynolds, 
 who had hitherto remained silent since our entrance, 
 turned to us and said : — 
 
 " I am so glad you have come ; I hardly feel competent 
 to keep the peace. Here is a furious discussion raging, 
 and has been for a long time, and both combatants are as 
 
 7« 
 
MORAL EDUCATION JJ 
 
 convinced of the Tightness of their position as when they 
 began — nay, I rather think more so I For my own part I 
 agree in theory with Mrs. Hindley ; but our hostess, I 
 fear, is quite unconvertible. However, as you gentlemen 
 are at last here, we may perhaps get the matter settled." 
 
 "You forget, Mrs. Reynolds," said the Doctor very 
 gravely, " that my wife is an ardent advocate of women's 
 rights. It would be as much as my peace for a week is 
 worth to interfere without appeal from one of the two 
 combatants." 
 
 " Oh, well, then," said Mrs. Reynolds with a sigh, " I 
 give up. But I leave you to answer for the conse- 
 quences." 
 
 " It is all your fault, my dear," said my wife, turning 
 to me. " What business have you to throw such an apple 
 of discord among us as theories of morality ? We were 
 so^ in love with the subject at dinner that we went on 
 with it afterwards, and now you see, having diverged 
 fatally on a crucial point, are more in love with it than 
 ever." 
 
 " Ah," I said, " Thackeray speculates somewhere on 
 the mystery of the conversation carried on by the ladies 
 while the gentlemen are eating and vapouring in smoke. 
 Now we know all about it. They are so short of origin- 
 ality that they continue the gentlemen's subjects — and 
 quarrel." 
 
 "All right, Mr. Trelawney," said Mrs. Hindley, "I 
 will remember that remark and have my revenge some 
 day. Who was it, please, if my husband speaks truth, 
 who wanted to finish the discussion on moral training in 
 the evening at home, because, as he said, there were 
 points in education which women could settle better than 
 men ? " 
 
 " It is not fair, Mrs. Hindley, to avail yourself of know- 
 ledge gained behind your adversary's back." 
 
 " That is all very well"; but to show you that we women 
 are capable of propounding matters which are too great 
 even for your mighty intellects, I will lay the subject of 
 our dispute before you. Are society lies justifiable, and 
 if so, on what ground ? " 
 
 " Certainly they are, as the smaller of two evils." 
 
 " And would you teach your children so ? " 
 
yS MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " When they are the proper age to grasp the distinc- 
 tion." 
 
 " And what age may that be ? " 
 
 "That depends upon their development — say about 
 seventeen." 
 
 " Well, and if you indulge in them, are you so sanguine 
 as to believe that your children will not discover your 
 habit before the proper age to grasp the distinction ? " 
 
 " You will, of course, have to show very great care." 
 
 "Of course," repeated Mrs. Hindley, with a touch of 
 sarcasm. 
 
 " And do you hope to succeed ? " 
 
 " I should try." 
 
 " Don't evade my question, if you please. Do you in 
 your heart think you will succeed in escaping the notice 
 of those all-observant eyes ? " 
 
 " No, perhaps not ; but " 
 
 "But what? Why hesitate? You are only dealing 
 with a woman." 
 
 " You must run some risks. The code of morality can- 
 not be quite the same for children as for grown men and 
 women." 
 
 " Ah, now we have come down to the arch-heresy that 
 morality is conditional. George," went on Mrs. Hindley, 
 turning to her husband, " I beg you to take due notice 
 that Mr. Trelawney's morality is very far from perfect, 
 even in theory, and therefore when you see your way to 
 carrying into practice your ideal of perfect schoolmasters 
 as the proper trainers of the young, you will take care to 
 give him a very wide berth. So, Mr. Trelawney, you 
 think that codes differ for young and old. Pray on what 
 ground?" 
 
 " On the ground of the prime rule of method in all edu- 
 cation, that you must teach wide principles before you 
 take exceptions." 
 
 " That may be true as regards teaching ; is it equally 
 true as regards practice ? " 
 
 " Certainly ; the master would be a fool who, after lay- 
 ing down such a rule, we will say, for the oratio obliqua 
 in Latin, as that historic tenses always take historic 
 tenses, should promptly lead his boys to passages with 
 primaries. Those should only be pointed out to them 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 79 
 
 when they have the broader rule thoroughly imbedded, 
 so thoroughly that they can even apply it unerringly." 
 
 "And now, Mr. Trelawney, may I ask whether the 
 same rule of practice does not apply to morality ? And with 
 even more imperativeness in proportion to the vastly more 
 important results that depend on it? " 
 
 The laugh, I was bound to confess, was fairly against 
 me, and when Mrs. Hindley added, "Oh, you need not be 
 afraid of me ; I am only a woman, you know, and no doubt 
 if my husband or Mr. Reynolds had used the argument 
 you would have been able to answer them," I could only 
 reply :— 
 
 " Spare me, Mrs. Hindley, spare me ; I confess myself 
 fairly worsted, and will pay whatever penalty you like, 
 even to the extent of doing what is most unpleasant to 
 me — recanting my opinions and recalling the ungallant 
 remark I made a few minutes since." 
 
 "Upon my word, sir, you make matters worse. You 
 recall an ungallant remark and say that you find the duty 
 most unpleasant ! You are like the famous member of 
 the House of Commons — do you know the story ? — who, 
 on being ordered to apologize for calling another member 
 a liar, did so on this wise : ' I called the hon. member a 
 liar. It is true. I am ordered to apologize. I am very 
 sorry/ It will be impossible to have any dealings with 
 you if you go on in this wise." 
 
 " No, I assure you I did not mean that " 
 
 " Then why did you say it ? I would certainly recom- 
 mend you to say no more; it is clear that you do not 
 know the proper use of language, so that even a woman 
 can set you right. So now, Mr. Trelawney, be careful in 
 future how you disparage women's conversation ; you see 
 they can score a good revenge. But, dropping chaff, to 
 be serious again : this question of truth, how are we to 
 teach its supreme importance to the young as long as we 
 ourselves are so shamefully lax ? " 
 
 "I am very pleased, Mrs. Hindley, to hear you take so 
 strong a view," said Reynolds. " Even if among ourselves 
 these white lies, as they are called, do no harm, they 
 cause incalculable mischief in the minds of our children 
 by preventing a clear notion of the real essence of what 
 I think I may style the most important of all altruistic 
 
So MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 virtues — truthfulness. It is no answer to urge that we 
 cannot possibly hope to banish them. That I sorrowfully 
 admit to be true, at least in the present condition of the 
 world; but we can surely do something to improve our 
 own conduct." 
 
 "I am convinced that the only proper standpoint to 
 take, especially in education," said Mrs. Hindley, " is the 
 one I have already expressed rather vigorously," — and Mr. 
 Trelawney assented, — " that there is no justification for a 
 lie except to avoid some greater evil." 
 
 " But I say in answer," replied my wife, '' that the 
 wound you inflict on other people's sensibilities by speak- 
 ing the exact truth is often far greater than the harm 
 done by telling such a lie as I have supposed. You have 
 never yet answered the problem I raised — what should 
 the hair- washing lady have done ? " 
 
 '' She might have sent down word that she was unfor- 
 tunately engaged for a long time to come. And after all, 
 when we consider it, why should anything have been 
 needed beyond the bare truth were it not for the absurd 
 conventions of society, whose tyranny is as overbearing 
 and killing as any of the dread superstitions of savage- 
 dom ? Of course I know we cannot quite disregard them, 
 but why comfort our souls with the thought of doing 
 right, when really we are guilty of infringing the moral 
 law simply through cowardice, because we are afraid of 
 that far mightier law, social convention ? It is just like 
 tight-lacing, which comes under the condemnation of that 
 supreme rule which forbids you ever to injure your 
 health." 
 
 " How, then, would you set about instructing children 
 in truth, and when would you begin ? " I asked. 
 
 " Let me answer the latter question first," Mrs. Hindley 
 said, — " the time. Begin from the very earliest days when 
 a child can speak or even indicate by signs truth or a lie. 
 There is no vice to which young children are so prone as 
 telling falsehoods, a statement I am sure both Mrs. Tre- 
 lawney and Mrs. Reynolds will support. It is not always 
 exactly intentional : it is as often as not due at first to 
 imagination and defect of memory. A child will readily 
 confuse one event with another if there happens to be a 
 superficial resemblance. But this tendency must be 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 8 1 
 
 checked from the very outset, and on no account must the 
 stories, often told for mere effect, receive the meed of 
 laughter. They must be taken quite seriously, and in a 
 short time will be abandoned. This is the only way to 
 form a habit of truthfulness, as indeed to form any habit 
 at all, by constant, unremitting practice, never letting a 
 single chance escape. And this first of social virtues has 
 one great advantage, it is easy to prove its importance to 
 quite young children. They can by one or two crucial in- 
 stances be easily brought to see that the whole continu- 
 ance of society depends upon this virtue. It is an excellent 
 introduction to a series of lessons on our duty to our 
 neighbours. But there is one thing about which we must 
 be most careful— never to show that we suspect an un- 
 truth unless we are clear in our own minds that we can 
 bring the fault home to the real offender. And another 
 point is this : we must never encourage lying even uncon- 
 sciously to ourselves, as I fear we often do." 
 
 "Ah," I exclaimed, "I know what you mean. It is 
 one of my standing difficulties when I have to enquire 
 into offences at school. By putting leading questions 
 one often suggests a lie to a child's mind, even where, if 
 left to himself, he would probably speak the truth. It is 
 so much easier to say yes or no than to invent a whole 
 statement of one's own, and to a child, I expect, the guilt 
 does not appear the same. I am convinced we often unin- 
 tentionally induce to lying, especially by suggesting ex- 
 cuses or motives which never entered the child's head at 
 the time he committed the given offence." 
 
 " Quite so, and your last remark calls up two other 
 points, both of great importance. The first is excuses. 
 Many excuses, as you say, are mere lies, making the mat- 
 ter worse instead of better. Yet one is bound to give a 
 child a hearing." 
 
 " One master I know," I said, " has an ingenious method 
 of getting over the difficulty. When he asks a boy if he 
 has any excuse to give, he always says that if it is a 
 worthless one, he will inflict a special punishment for 
 that alone. The consequence is he never hears an excuse 
 save such as are really valid." 
 
 "But the matter would be rather more difficult to 
 handle with quite small children than with children of 
 
 G 
 
82 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 some growth. However, the chief point in all moral 
 training is to be alive to the possibilities of going wrong 
 and misleading unintentionally. If we know of the 
 difficulties we shall probably get over them. The second 
 matter to which I wished to refer was the matter of 
 exactness, where common opinion would call it harsh to 
 speak of lying. But the more I observe children, the 
 more convinced I am that a great portion of lying arises 
 from mere exaggeration through a desire for the pic- 
 turesque. It is very difficult to get a practised observer 
 even to give exactly an account of what he saw and nothing 
 else, how much more so with children ! And it is here 
 that ordinary intellectual education comes perhaps most 
 closely into touch with moral : both of them develop, if 
 properly managed, an extreme and scrupulous love for 
 truth. Wanton exaggeration and unconscious misrepre- 
 senting through a defect in training in observation are 
 two of the commonest sources of lying. What a vital 
 effect they have on after life in the fostering of prejudices 
 and unwillingness to look facts fairly in the face I need 
 hardly pause to say." 
 
 " Very often, I think," said the Doctor, " the misrepre- 
 sentation is due to confusion, as you just now hinted, at 
 least in the minds of very young children, of two perfectly 
 distinct yet similar events. There is no intention not to 
 speak the truth, but the children have not learnt to dis- 
 tinguish. With proper care as the mind develops, this 
 fault can easily be corrected. But we must be alive to it. 
 Those who are engaged in bringing up children would 
 get many hints from published studies, such as the book 
 by M. Perez, called The First Three Years of Childhood. 
 Instances of various kinds of untruthfulness are given 
 there, and M. Perez says, what is quite true, that lying is 
 a perfectly subordinate vice : it usually springs from some 
 different cause, which cause must be ascertained if we 
 would check it." 
 
 " That is very true," said Mr. Rejmolds, " but it only 
 illustrates what is a well-known fact, that one defect 
 usually conduces to another, and that it is not possible to 
 raise one part of character without at the same time rais- 
 ing the whole. But," he went on, " I do not quite under- 
 stand how you are to get your concrete instances of lying. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 83 
 
 If I understood aright what was said some time ago by 
 you, I think, Trelawney, while we were on our walk, we 
 must give specimens from tales and other sources, and 
 treat the subject largely from the intellectual side. That 
 was so, wasn't it ? " 
 
 " That is the method Professor Adler recommends." 
 
 " Could you give us a little more in detail a specimen 
 of his way of proceeding ? " 
 
 " Well, if you will allow me to fetch his book, we shall 
 see what can be said on the question." 
 
 In a minute or two I reappeared, and turning over the 
 leaves said, — 
 
 ^'You must remember this point first, that Professor 
 Adler is dealing with school education, and only runs over 
 very briefly the education which can be imparted at home. 
 He impresses upon us the vital necessity of insisting from 
 the first on regularity — a check upon impulse, he calls it 
 — and obedience, and says further that by the age of six 
 — bear in mind, please, that the book is written by an 
 American — there will be a development of conscience and 
 self -consciousness, — not in the bad sense as equivalent to 
 shyness, — and, more important perhaps than anything, of 
 reverence, which he regards, quite rightly, I think, as the 
 mainspring of the child's whole moral growth. The recog- 
 nition of himself as a separate entity brings to the child 
 a notion of property, and with this outfit at the age of six 
 the child enters school. Then Dr. Adler sketches a course 
 of moral teaching, of which you will gain a fair idea, if I 
 run over rapidly the headings in his index. I do not pro- 
 pose to enumerate all the virtues he has tackled in detail, 
 as it would take too long. I can only say that his method 
 seems to me so good that every educator must be ready to 
 work on his lines, not in every detail, perhaps, but at 
 least in the main. If you wish, then, to go into the ques- 
 tion thoroughly, you should get the book and read it for 
 yourselves. I will only ask you to assume that, in any 
 remarks I may make as to the actual intellectual instruc- 
 tion in morality, I accept everything he has said, and 
 will only add such points as he may have omitted for 
 different reasons, except in those cases — rare, if any — in 
 which I may expressly indicate dissent. His headings, 
 then, are these : First, in the primary course, till the 
 
84 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 children are about twelve, he makes two main divisions, 
 the use of fairy tales and the use of fables. This he fol- 
 lows by additional remarks on fables and a detailed expo- 
 sition of special stories. His stories he takes in the main 
 from the Bible, and after specimens of his suggested 
 method of treatment, he turns to tales from the Iliad and 
 Odyssey, or perhaps I should say gives us a sketch of the 
 whole outline of these poems. Next comes the grammar 
 course, from twelve to fifteen. This portion of the book 
 receives a sub-title, ' Lessons on Duty,' and having classi- 
 fied duties earlier. Professor Adler now treats them in 
 accordance with his arrangement in the following order: 
 the duty of acquiring knowledge, a very happy beginning ; 
 duties relating to the physical life and the feelings ; those 
 relating to others, more specially defined as filial and fra- 
 ternal duties; duties towards all men, i.e. justice and 
 charity, and the elements of civic duty. Then follows a 
 chapter on the use of proverbs and speeches, and another 
 on that most important point, the individualization of 
 moral teaching. The book is closed by an appendix on 
 the influence of manual training upon character." 
 
 " Why is that in an appendix only ? " asked my wife. 
 
 " Oh, that," I said, " seems to be more or less of an 
 accident. The subject is mentioned in the text, but as 
 Professor Adler had dealt with it separately on another 
 occasion, he refers his hearers to the address then given. 
 In that address he is dealing chiefly with children of one 
 type of criminality, that of moral deterioration arising 
 from weakness of will ; but he emphasizes for every one 
 the immense moral gain that results from systematic 
 manual education. His remarks, however, should not be 
 treated as final, for he says the theory of the subject is 
 only beginning to be worked out ; but as far as they go 
 they strike me as admirable. I suppose though he would 
 claim, and to my thinking rightly, a greater degree of 
 surety for his conclusions on training generally, and that 
 is, perhaps, one reason why he has kept the two apart. 
 
 " But to proceed. I have given you an outline of his under- 
 lying principles. I now want to show you, if possible, in 
 brief, how he would attempt to carry them out. I do not 
 propose to consider how far his different choices of material 
 are the best that could be made, but will give you a summary 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 85 
 
 of his method in detail. In the first place, the fairy tales 
 he says must be told— the response is more living than if 
 they are read. Secondly, we must not elaborate the moral ; 
 if the tale is distorted to serve such a purpose all its life 
 will have disappeared: the point should be emphasized 
 only incidentally. Next we must avoid anything that is 
 merely superstitious, and anything, too, of an evil tendency. 
 By observing this last pair of points, a great many tales 
 will be ruled out. From the instances given of useful 
 lessons we may take as an illustration of the duty of 
 keeping faith the story of the 'Frog King,' and among the 
 fables that of the ' Traveller and the Bear.' At the same 
 time, a warning is given that the fables are wanting in a 
 really moral spirit — the appeal is to the auxiliary motive — 
 self-interest. But Professor Adler thinks this is no 
 disadvantage, provided the defect be constantly borne in 
 mind. He says the motive of self-interest has to be 
 developed also, though it must always be subordinate to 
 the moral motive. But self-interest, he says, ' serves the 
 purpose of strengthening the weak conscience of the 
 young,' — a very searching remark. The fables, in parti- 
 cular, are useful as isolating one moral fact, and they can 
 be taken as types of certain virtues and vices, the names 
 serving afterwards to classify any acts we may have to 
 notice among the children themselves. For the way of 
 handling them. Professor Adler shows that he is well 
 versed in the theory of method when he says, ' Relate the 
 fable ; let the pupil repeat it in his own words, making 
 sure that the essential points are stated correctly. By 
 means of questions elicit a clear-cut expression of the 
 point which the fable illustrates, then ask the pupil to 
 give out of his experience other instances illustrating the 
 same point.' 
 
 " At this point, the author passes to stories from the 
 Bible, which he handles in what, to an Englishman, seems 
 a very odd way. He dwells upon the fact that the stories, 
 both in the Bible and in the Homeric poems, are full of 
 the 'lucid expression of primary motives,' and so are 
 admirably fitted to teach the outlines of moral truth. The 
 former especially dwell upon filial and fraternal duties in 
 a way which cannot be matched elsewhere, but they are 
 of a more advanced type than fairy tales or fables, inas- 
 
S6 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 much as ' a succession of acts and their consequences are 
 (sic) presented to the scholar, on each of which his judg- 
 ment is to be exercised.' I will just give you the sketch of 
 the way in which he treats the story of Adam and Eve ; 
 it will be an excellent illustration of his method. He 
 takes the outline of the story, and develops details, as he 
 would in telling the tale to little children ; he changes 
 Adam and Eve into a boy and a girl, who had every 
 advantage that children could desire, for they lived in a 
 garden in company with their father, to whom they went 
 every morning for a loving look, who came to them every 
 night before they slept. There was only one tree whose 
 fruit they might not eat ; that was hurtful their father 
 told them, though they could not then understand why. 
 They must, however, trust him, as he loved them and would 
 give them no command save for their good. But one day 
 as Eve was passing near this tree, she heard a snake's voice 
 talking to her ; she stopped to listen, and was at last 
 persuaded to take one of the fruits and eat. As soon as 
 she had done so, she ran off to Adam, and he, too, was 
 tempted and ate the fruit ; but at night they were afraid 
 and hid themselves. When their father found them and 
 asked why they hid, they stammered forth all sorts of 
 excuses, and at last, when he drew the confession from 
 them, they tried to throw the blame on others. Punish- 
 ment followed, the natural punishment. Next morning 
 they had to quit the garden, but were told that some day 
 they might hope to regain it by dint of hard work and 
 much suffering." 
 
 **I think," said Mr. Reynolds, ''he would be a bold 
 man who, in England, would venture to treat Bible stories 
 in this way. It seems so curious that it should be possible 
 to retell the tale to children of apparently something 
 more than six years of age without their at once recognis- 
 ing the source, especially as he keeps the original names. 
 It does not say much for the knowledge of the Bible pos- 
 sessed by the average American." 
 
 " There are two things," I replied, " which you must 
 remember : First, that the stories are for children of all 
 classes, and many, surely, of the working classes, would 
 have no knowledge of them ; secondly, my experience as 
 a schoolmaster has shown me how shockingly ignorant of 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 87 
 
 the ordinary Bible narrative are children of even well-to- 
 do parents who have been in the habit of attending church 
 regularly. I feel sure that, if you were to ask the 
 examiners at Oxford in the pass Divinity schools, they 
 would quite bear out what I say, that even young men 
 who move in good society and have been for several years 
 at a boarding-school, where they hear four lessons in 
 chapel every Sunday, to say nothing of the others they 
 hear on week-days, often know practically nothing about 
 the Bible. Hence, I do not think we need be much sur- 
 prised if children show great ignorance on ordinary Bible 
 subjects, though I grant that the simpler tales, such as 
 the one I have given, might reasonably be expected to be 
 known to all." 
 
 " Does Professor Adler," Mrs. Hindley asked, " clearly 
 bring out the various moral points involved in the story ? 
 He seems to omit much of what is of primary importance, 
 as, for instance, the serpent's characteristic exaggeration of 
 the hardship of the command laid on the children." 
 
 " I am afraid the omission is mine, Mrs. Hindley. That 
 is a point on which the author expressly dwells, with others 
 which I have passed by for shortness. Thinking it would 
 take too much of our time if I gave the account in full, I 
 contented myself with merely a summary, but shall be 
 happy to lend the book to any one who would like to go 
 further into the matter. Of course, the main lesson in 
 this story is obedience." 
 
 "I do not like," said Mrs. Reynolds, "taking sacred 
 stories and dressing them up just as you please, with all 
 the reference to God left out." 
 
 " Yet surely," said Mrs. Hindley, " as for dressing them 
 up, that is what we all do when we tell children the 
 stories for the first time, and I do not think many people 
 would raise an objection to our bringing them within the 
 measure of a child's understanding." 
 
 " Would it not be better to read them just as they stand 
 in the Bible ? " 
 
 " It hardly follows, does it," said my wife, " that 
 children would understand every point ? They constantly 
 ask questions for further explanation. We must adapt 
 our teaching, religious and moral, as well as intellectual, 
 to a child's capacity to understand it, and you know how 
 
88 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 much greater hold a decorated story has over children 
 than a bald narrative. It suits their imaginative turn. 
 I do not think I should object to the method of treatment 
 on the ground of departure from the original version." 
 
 " And as to the other point," I put in, "I should like to 
 read you a note which Professor Adler gives : * I would 
 add to what has been said in the text, that the pupils are 
 expected to return to the study of the Bible, to read 
 and re-read these stories, and to receive a progressively 
 higher interpretation of their meaning as they grow older. 
 If in the above I have spoken in a general way of a father 
 and his two children, it will be easy for the Sunday- 
 school teacher to add later on that the father in the story 
 was God.' I think that meets your objection, Mrs. 
 Reynolds, does it not ? " 
 
 " In one way, yes ; but why should not the religious side 
 be taught from the first?" 
 
 " We discussed that question with your husband the 
 other morning, when we first fell on to this topic, and our 
 aim was to try and find out whether it was possible to do 
 anything for morality apart from religion, religion to be 
 the natural outcome of moral teaching, but instruction in 
 it left in the main to different hands from those which con- 
 cern themselves with morality pure and simple. And Pro- 
 fessor Adler begins his book with a discussion of the reasons 
 for and against the possibility of unsectarian moral instruc- 
 tion, and assuming himself to have proved his position 
 that such instruction is not only possible but desirable, 
 at all events under the educational conditions prevailing 
 in the United States, he treats the questions throughout 
 purely from the moral side, leaving, as I have shown you, 
 the religious aspect to be developed by the proper and 
 professed religious teachers ; but he is very far from being 
 antagonistic to religion. 
 
 " I will now resume my analysis of the book. Professor 
 Adler treats a number of other stories as he treated that 
 of Adam and Eve, some in detail, others in suggestion ; and 
 then points out that, in the legislation ascribed to Moses, 
 there are a number of simple rules fitted for children 
 which should be drawn up in the form of a regular table, 
 and committed to memory and recited in chorus. They 
 are far more extensive than the Ten Commandments. But 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 89 
 
 lie warns us especially that tlie rules must be quite 
 simple, and what he proposes in his course of instruction 
 is to content himself at first with moral pictures, and only 
 get on to deducing moral rules when the children are 
 advancing in their store of moral facts. And there 
 is another very wise caution that he gives — chiefly, in- 
 deed, in connection with the fables — that we must study 
 the conditions under which the tales had birth, so as to 
 grasp their exact spirit and thus be able with more 
 decision to reject those which may be unsuitable. Many, 
 for instance, of the well-known fables, coming from the 
 servile races of Asia, inculcate passive obedience to 
 tyrants — a doctrine it is certainly not desirable to teach 
 under present conditions in the West. I would only pro- 
 pose that, when the children have begun to feel their legs 
 to some extent in the matter, these stories might be taken 
 in order to exercise them in detecting the faults of morality 
 involved. They would thus serve instead of every-day 
 instances, which are not always ready to hand." 
 
 " Ah," said the Doctor, " I am glad of that remark, as 
 it leads on easily to an objection I want to raise. This 
 teaching of stories and exposition of their morality is all 
 very well, but does it go beyond intellectual knowledge ? 
 Our aim is practice. It is true we cannot have a perfect 
 practice without scientific knowledge behind it, but then, 
 I fear, it is even more true that knowledge without 
 practice is of no avail at all. Now will you tell us what 
 means — for I have forgotten — Professor Adler suggests 
 for securing to the children opportunities of practice ? 
 Instruction after all is not education." 
 
 " That, my dear Hindley, you surely remember, is one 
 of the points on which Adler himself is very strong. But 
 he regards the practice, or some of it — the habits — as 
 coming first, and the instruction as following on. His 
 words are these : ' The function of moral instruction is to 
 explicate in clear statements fit to be grasped by the 
 intellect the laws of duty which underlie the habits. The 
 value of such intellectual statements is that they give a 
 rational underpinning to moral practice, and, furthermore, 
 that they permit the moral rules to be applied to new 
 cases not heretofore brought within the scope of habit.' 
 Now I am not quite sure that I personally should agree 
 
90 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 with the order of precedence which he suggests. Of 
 course, it is only a logical precedence ; in practice the two 
 must go on together. Thus far, however, I will grant that 
 he is right : that in most cases the child must have some 
 experience of the duty in hand before a course of lessons 
 on it can be of use. But his statement seems rather to 
 imply that the habit must first have reached a high 
 development, and, if so, I disagree. It seems to me that 
 only a very rudimentary conception of the duty is required, 
 and that the habit will grow all the faster and more 
 securely if at once enforced by arguments in support. The 
 arguments, of course, must be adapted to the powers. If 
 they are deferred, we may get defective habits firmly 
 rooted by imperfect trainers, and our work will be doubled, 
 if it is not killed. Yet, I have no doubt that, were we 
 able to discuss together cases as they arise, we should not 
 find much divergence in our actual practice. So you see, 
 Hindley, Dr. Adler, like yourself, is alive to the fact that 
 instruction is not the sole thing or the chief ; he makes it 
 subsidiary to education and practice." 
 
 '* Yes, but still you have not got my point quite fully. 
 You know that in science, as well as in education, one is 
 constantly testing to see if the pupils are able to apply 
 their knowledge. Now, where are you going to test like 
 that in morals ? You dare not invent test cases — the 
 avoidance of temptation is the great rule in morality : 
 how, then, can you know if the knowledge is really 
 practical ? Professor Adler, I think, hardly tackles just 
 this point." 
 
 '' No, I think not ; at least, I cannot recall it at pre- 
 sent." 
 
 " Then, after all, his moral education " 
 
 "The express title of his book is Moral Instruction of 
 Children.'' 
 
 " Well, then, his moral instruction is moral instruction, 
 and not practice, and, much as I admire his book, I am 
 disappointed." 
 
 " I do not know why you should be disappointed at a 
 book not containing what it does not profess to contain." 
 
 *' I am not exactly disappointed at the book, but 
 disappointed generally. I hoped we were going to be 
 saved the difficulty of worrying out for ourselves what is 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 9 1 
 
 really the cardinal point — how to practise children in the 
 virtues. But I suppose we shall have to set about it, and 
 meantime I think the plan you suggested, that we might 
 use the morally defective tales and fables as a kind of 
 intellectual exercise on the application of rules learnt, a 
 very happy one." 
 
 " It certainly corresponds to a common practice in 
 intellectual education, that of setting faulty examples to 
 be corrected. I am aware that many high authorities 
 condemn the practice altogether, on the ground that the 
 learner should see only perfect models ; but I think the 
 objection is overstrained." 
 
 " Would you think it overstrained in moral education, 
 which is on a different footing from intellectual ? " 
 
 " Yes, I think I should call it overstrained even there, 
 provided we use the faulty examples as I proposed, taking 
 care that the children found out the faults and knew 
 what was to be avoided. After all it is impossible— and 
 for their future well-being perhaps undesirable — that 
 children should be led by their rearing to suppose that the 
 world contains nothing but good. They must learn early 
 to know and to fight the bad. Of course I should take 
 care to bring before their notice none but such defects as 
 they might easily meet in their own career at their given 
 age." 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Trelawney," put in Mrs. Hindley, " do you 
 remember some time back a certain remark about not 
 showing boys any cases of the breach of oratio dbliqua 
 rules till those rules were thoroughly imbedded ? I think 
 you applied a strong term to any master who chose to go 
 on a different line. You even called him a fool ; and 
 pray, what are you doing now ? " 
 
 Our friends all laughed, while I said : — 
 
 "Now, Mrs. Hindley, you are both merciless and 
 vindictive. Is this a right spirit in which to discuss so 
 sacred a subject as moral education ? " 
 
 " Ah, yes," Mrs. Hindley replied, " it is all very well, 
 but you cannot get off so easily. Pray, what about con- 
 sistency ? " 
 
 " Oh, consistency is a scarecrow made to frighten 
 politicians. I ought to have been more careful in my 
 former statement and put in a qualification, that it was 
 
92 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 necessary to warn pupils against the apparent breach of 
 the rules at times. This done, to make the passage 
 conform to regular rules would then be valuable practice. 
 And it is just the same with the proposed fables. But if 
 you do not mind, I should like to defer this question till 
 we have been over the whole ground ; for it seems to me 
 we shall see as we go along more clearly where the mere 
 instruction requires supplementing hj practice. So if you 
 have no objection, I will return to Dr. Adler. 
 
 " The next point, you remember, to tales from the 
 Bible was tales from the Iliad and Odyssey. Of his 
 method of treating the latter. Professor Adler gives us 
 several beautiful specimens ; but I will not go into them 
 at length, as my illustration from the Bible is sufficiently 
 typical of his whole proceeding. With the Iliad he 
 contents himself with throwing out suggestions, and then, 
 stimulated as we are by the beauty of his sketch, he takes 
 us out next beyond the range of the primary into what 
 he calls the grammar course, and lands us in the midst 
 of lessons on duties. 
 
 " Now it is clear that in order to be thorough it is neces- 
 sary to have a classification of duties. I have already 
 given you, in brief, the classification Professor Adler 
 adopts, and do not intend to criticise it now. We may 
 have to return to the point later on. I shall at present 
 only summarize his actual proposals. 
 
 " The new part of the book opens with theory. In the 
 primary course the aim, says the author, was to lead to 
 the formation of moral percepts ; in the grammar course 
 we advance to concepts — from observation, that is, and 
 collection of instances we now are to pass to generaliza- 
 tion. But the generalizations we are at present concerned 
 with are not the largest and most comprehensive, those 
 which are the business of moral philosophers; but the 
 smaller and secondary generalizations on which the world 
 is practically agreed. He illustrates his meaning by the 
 virtue of truthfulness. He says that on quitting the 
 primary stage the child will have grasped the general 
 maxim against untruthfulness, but room will be left for 
 the multitude of doubts arising under exceptional con- 
 ditions. Hence what we want is a general rule fitted to 
 cover those exceptions too. How are we to get it ? The 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 93 
 
 author starts with a case where the children would con- 
 demn without hesitation a statement as a lie, and em- 
 phasizes, in passing, the importance of getting the children 
 themselves to take part in the discussion. After several 
 instances he suggests as a definition that the statement 
 does not correspond with facts. Were then the old 
 astronomers liars when they declared that the sun went 
 round the earth? Certainly not. Yet their statements 
 did not correspond with facts. Suppose we take, then, 
 conformity to fact. Still there is the difficulty that a 
 statement may appear to be in literal conformity with the 
 fact and yet be nothing but a contemptible lie. Cases in 
 point, too, are mental reservations. A further alteration 
 then. Shall we say, ' Intend that thy words shall corre- 
 spond to the essential facts ' ? But even this is not 
 enough. We are sometimes justified in telling a lie, to 
 the insane, for example, or the sick. For this we find 
 justification in the fact that language as a means of 
 human intercourse must further the rational ends of life. 
 Details in proof of this statement are then given, and 
 finally we arrive at some such formula as this : Intend to 
 communicate the essential facts to those who are capable 
 of making a rational use of them." 
 
 " Surely, Mr. Trelawney," interposed Mrs. Reynolds, 
 "you cannot approve of laying such exceptional cases 
 before children. It will upset their belief in truthfulness 
 altogether." 
 
 " Professor Adler himself refers to the danger, but he 
 points out — and I can support him from recollections of 
 my own childhood and from a pretty extensive observa- 
 tion since — that children know well that there are some 
 cases when no one tells the truth save a moral fanatic, 
 and that this knowledge, if we admit no exceptions to our 
 rule, will lead to the very result you fear — a disbelief in 
 the imperativeness of truth altogether. It is no good 
 shutting our eyes to facts and pretending not to know of 
 the sharp-sightedness of children. Honesty is imperative 
 in all our dealings. To illustrate the difficulty a child 
 may have in reaching a satisfactory criterion for himself, 
 may I tell a story of my own younger days ? You will 
 certainly be amused, but it will show you how one who is 
 very conscientious — a fanatic, perhaps, to use our author's 
 
94 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 term — may make the rough maxim into an idol, whether 
 its effects be good or bad. When I was at college, just 
 beginning ethics, one of my tutors put to me this ques- 
 tion : ' Suppose you were in a wood and had just parted 
 from a friend, when some robbers came up and asked 
 where he had gone. What would you do ? Would you 
 speak the truth or not ? ' I thought for a little time and 
 decided for the truth. Well do I remember the force of 
 the reply and the shock it gave me : ' Then if I were a 
 judge, I should not hesitate for a moment in sentencing 
 you to several years' penal servitude.' Of course, in 
 argument, the case is not uncommon, but my rearing had 
 been strict in notions of truth-telling, and though, when 
 asked the question, I felt a slight hesitation, I had never 
 got hold of any ground on which to justify disregard of 
 truth. Now I say that it was absolutely wrong that I, 
 brought up as a boy at a public school, and not then fresh 
 to the University, should, at the age of twenty as I then 
 was, be unable from nothing but overconscientiousness to 
 see my course clear along the right path in a case so 
 simple as that." 
 
 " I quite agree with you, Trelawney," said the Doctor ; 
 ** but it was just like you." 
 
 " Is that a compliment or the reverse ? " I asked, with 
 a laugh. "However, I do not know that that matters 
 much at present. I simply give the case in answer to 
 Mrs. Reynolds as an illustration of the need of proper 
 training. Of course, it is all-important that the difficulty 
 be not raised till the children have grasped firmly the 
 main principle, — please note, Mrs. Hindley, how I can 
 learn, — and until they have reached such an age or such 
 development that they are likely to begin to ask the 
 question themselves. Indeed, that is a point which is 
 always fundamental: we must suit our teaching to the 
 children's capacities, and never begin subjects till nature 
 suggests them. In all things nature must be our guide." 
 
 " Is that in Adler, too ? " asked Reynolds. 
 
 "Most assuredly, though I hardly imagine that any 
 thinking man will question the truth of it. And yet I 
 do not know ; on the side of the intellect the analogous 
 rule is constantly violated." 
 
 "In fact," said Dr. Hindley, "as I urged some time 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 95 
 
 ago, right knowledge does not guarantee right prac- 
 tice." 
 
 " No ; but for the present we put that question aside." 
 
 " It seems to me," said Mrs. Hindley, " your present is 
 for ever." 
 
 ''Now really, Mrs. Hindley, I call that unkind. But 
 sarcasm, no matter how cutting, shall not stir me from 
 my path. So I will return at once to our friend Adler. 
 
 " Taking the duty of acquiring knowledge first, he starts 
 by telling stories in illustration, choosing those of 
 Cleanthes and Hillel ; and, if I may add a parenthesis, I 
 should say the average boy would be greatly taken by the 
 story as such, but afterwards would be found reflecting 
 to himself, ' Catch me being such a fool ' " 
 
 "There you are, Trelawney," interrupted the Doctor, 
 " flippant as usual. Really, Mrs. Trelawney, you must 
 teach your husband better. There may be some excuse 
 for flippancy when a friend is propounding a theory ; but 
 
 when he is propounding it himself I shall really 
 
 have to hold an investigation de lunatico inquirendo.^^ 
 
 " Be calm, be calm, my dear fellow," I replied. " You 
 forget I am here merely giving Adler' s views." 
 
 " But you said that where you did not express dissent 
 we were to take it that you agreed." 
 
 " And did not my flippancy, as you heartlessly call it, 
 expressly show my dissent ? I am not prepared to bow 
 down to all Adler's instances, though with his main lines 
 I am in hearty accord. And my remark I did not mean 
 to be flippant in spirit, whatever its expression may have 
 seemed. I do really believe that what I said would repre- 
 sent the attitude of an average boy, at least to these 
 illustrative tales. It is fortunate they are not essential 
 to the scheme. But to proceed. After the tales, Adli^ 
 takes the points raised— the value of knowledge for various 
 reasons — and gives headings for what we may roughly 
 call a topical lecture. He adds one very practical sug- 
 gestion, that the teacher, after going through the points 
 in the abstract, should take the various school subjects 
 and explain the value of each. That is a procedure, as he 
 says, far too commonly neglected. Were it adopted more, 
 we might perhaps hear less of the many unreasoning 
 arguments urged against the classics. He says, too, we 
 
g6 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 should make clear how various other school virtues are 
 contributory to this one, and so reduce our moral know- 
 ledge to an organized correlated whole. 
 
 " Next come the duties relating to the physical life, such 
 as avoidance of suicide, and practice of cleanliness and 
 temperance, closely related to which he makes those which 
 concern the feelings — fear, anger, and the like. I could go 
 through the whole list, but it is unnecessary, especially 
 as we may have to make a scheme for ourselves. After 
 these are placed duties relating to others, under the two 
 great sub-divisions of filial — covering especially reverence 
 — and fraternal duties. Then drawing what seems an 
 awkward distinction, Adler proceeds to treat of duties 
 towards all men. Under these he puts justice and 
 charity, into which he enters in some detail, the duty of 
 gratitude, duties to servants, and, oddly enough, duties as 
 regards animals, where, I must confess, I felt rather a 
 shock ; for his first words are, ' I cannot admit that we 
 have duties towards animals.' My impulse was at once 
 to reply that I should rather say our duties towards them 
 were from one point of view even more imperative than 
 our duties towards our fellow-men, for the latter can 
 defend themselves and force their rights to be recognised 
 — an impossibility with the brute beasts. Moreover, I am 
 even inclined to go further, though you may think me a 
 mere sentimentalist, and say that we have duties to the 
 vegetable creation also, for 
 
 * 'Tis my faith that every flower 
 Enjoys the air it breathes,' 
 
 That, however, is to raise an unnecessary question now, 
 and I will only say that Professor Adler's distinction ends 
 rather in logical subtlety than in any practical diiFerfence. 
 For he continues thus : ' We cannot very well speak of 
 duties towards creatures on which we in part subsist ; but 
 there are duties with respect to animals.' " 
 
 '* It is a good thing," said my wife, " that Professor 
 Adler does not live in a cannibal country." 
 
 " Yes," I replied ; " and, indeed, I do think in treating 
 this subject his ardour rather cools." 
 
 "Perhaps he is a vivisection ist," said Mrs. Hindley, 
 " and is afraid of being posed." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 97 
 
 " I am sure I cannot say : I only give you the im- 
 pression he leaves on my mind. He falls largely back on 
 what Froebel recommended — the keeping of tame animals 
 — no, I beg his pardon, not quite that ; he merely says, 
 ' Get your pupils interested in the habits of animals. 
 Familiarity in this case will breed sympathy.' He then 
 refers to bees and beavers. Now, for my own part, I 
 would say this : that just as the highest test of a 
 thorough gentleman is his treatment of those who are 
 socially his inferiors, so much so that he would, if he 
 must show discourtesy, be discourteous to an equal rather 
 than to them, so the highest test of a man's moral 
 development is often to be found in his treatment of 
 dumb animals. I do not mean those which he may have 
 brought up, or which may belong to him, — for in that case 
 many brutes might claim high morality, — but especially 
 of those creatures in which he has no direct interest, on 
 which, in fact, he may look with a certain amount of 
 loathing." 
 
 " Bravo ! " cried Mrs. Hindley ; " then you are a Social- 
 ist after all." 
 
 ''Does Professor Adler take any notice of the use of 
 animals for food?" asked Reynolds. 
 
 " Yes ; but not at great length. He says, with ap- 
 parently some hesitation, that * the highest point of view 
 to take is this, that man is, so to speak, the crucible in 
 which all the utilities of nature are refined to higher 
 spiritual uses,' and that, as he puts all nature to his 
 service — trees, metals, clay, flowers— so ' he may actually 
 absorb the life of the lower animals, in order to transform 
 and trans^figure it, as it were, into that higher life which 
 is possible only in human society. But it follows that he 
 is a mere parasite and an interloper in nature, unless he 
 actually leads the truly human life.' A very curious and, 
 to me, an unsatisfactory argument. I wonder how it 
 would seem to us to be transformed and transfigured in a 
 similar way ? " 
 
 "Don't you think," said Reynolds, "that the Divine 
 purpose is to transform and transfigure us in some such 
 way ? " 
 
 "Perhaps; but according to the ordinary theory, we 
 shall enjoy a conscious immortality and be able to esti- 
 
 H 
 
98 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 mate the gain that has resulted from our sufferings here 
 on earth. Animals, however, have no such compensation." 
 
 " I think it monstrous," said Mrs. Hindley, " that any 
 one should believe he is destined to attain immortality 
 himself and be quite content to leave his loved pets and 
 dumb friends to an endless death — a death without a 
 hope." 
 
 " Well, Trelawney," said the Doctor, " you are very 
 strong against Adler. How would you justify the use 
 of animals for food ?" 
 
 " Ah, there you have me. I really do not know." 
 
 " Then why are you so hard on poor Adler ? " 
 
 " Surely I may criticise a feeble argument, without 
 being able to produce a better." 
 
 "Yes; but I think the question, as well as that of 
 vivisection, may have to be solved before we stop, and I 
 must confess I expect you as our guide to choose dis- 
 tinctly one side or the other." 
 
 "Oh, dear!" I said, "I really did hope I should not 
 have let myself in for these questions. They seem to me 
 to be cases where practice contravenes every moral con- 
 sideration, and yet where we can hardly abandon the 
 practice. But I will do as I always do — postpone them ! " 
 
 " No, no ; let's have them now," they all cried, and 
 Mrs. Hindley added, "We know you too well to let you off 
 this time." 
 
 " No, seriously, I positively cannot tackle the question 
 now. In the first place, I do not know why you should 
 expect me to stand up here to be criticised. It was the 
 Doctor who was going to give his views on things, not I." 
 
 "But you pushed yourself forward," Mrs. Hindley put 
 in, "just in accordance with the character your wife gives 
 you — that you can never be silent when others are talking 
 and take the second place." 
 
 " Doctor, you really must intercede with your wife, or 
 else use your husbandly authority. Because I offended 
 her once, she is most remorseless. However, even if I 
 have thrust myself in " 
 
 " You may be sure," said the Doctor, " I do not resent 
 it, especially as we are discussing methods of instruction, 
 on which you, as a practical teacher, must be far better 
 qualified to speak than I." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 99 
 
 " Yes, perhaps there is something in that. But I was 
 going to say as my second reason, that the question is 
 really out of place now, for our present object is to review 
 a complete method of moral instruction. Whereas later 
 on, when we have left Professor Adler and are suggesting 
 our own views on various topics, this and similar ques- 
 tions will come in naturally and in their proper logical 
 place." 
 
 " Yes, that is a point certainly," said Reynolds. "Well, 
 if we let you off now, will you promise us not to forget 
 what we have postponed? " 
 
 "Oh, never fear," said Mrs. Hindley. "I will remind 
 him." 
 
 At this there was a laugh ; but I said, " Well, after all, 
 I will just give my opinion now and let the matter slide. 
 The only justifications I can find for vivisection and taking 
 life to supply ourselves with food are, first, analogy from 
 the arrangements of nature, which has produced many a 
 flesh-eating animal ; secondly, the fact that we are 
 masters of the earth, and if our interests and those of our 
 inferiors come into conflict, our inferiors must give way. 
 Might, in fact, in this case, seems to give right." 
 
 "Well, Trelawney," said the Doctor, "I don't think 
 your second point worth a moment's consideration. It is 
 merely Adler's argument in other words — altered very 
 considerably for the worse." 
 
 "Yes, I feel that myself, but cannot help it," I said. 
 " I give you my view for what it is worth, and shall be 
 only too glad to let the subject drop. I still think that 
 in this case morality and practice are incompatible, and 
 yet practice cannot give way. But let us resume our 
 analysis of Adler. 
 
 "We have been over nearly all the different heads of 
 duty. There[remains, however, one very important branch, 
 newly discovered, or rather re-discovered, that aspect of 
 duty called the duty of a citizen. Here Professor Adler 
 proposes to emphasize three political ideas : the idea of the 
 supremacy of the law, the true idea of punishment, and 
 the idea of nationality. The school, as he shows, affords 
 an excellent starting-point for developing the two former 
 ideas. Incidentally he makes a good remark — that school 
 government should rest as far as possible on the willing 
 
100 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 consent and co-operation of the governed — a thought 
 which would have almost turned grey with horror the 
 hair of some good old pedagogues of the past, though now, 
 happily, if not always carried out to conscious thorough- 
 ness, the maxim has become almost an accepted rule, at 
 least in this country. Further, he dwells on another 
 point we all admit now — the value of the discipline of 
 games. As to the development of the idea of nationality, 
 that should be done through the history of our country, 
 the different periods being so treated as to bring the 
 different moral ideas which swayed the nation at each 
 point into high relief. At the same time he warns us 
 against Chauvinism, and as an antidote proposes uni- 
 versal history, taught in such a way as to throw into 
 prominence the contributions made by different nations 
 to the history of the whole human race. Further, there 
 should be a brief exposition of the various functions of 
 government, but this is to be subsidiary to the other 
 point." 
 
 "In that respect," said Reynolds, "he differs widely 
 from the enthusiasts on this side of the water, who are 
 turning instruction in civic duty in the direction which we 
 English find so hard to avoid, — the purely practical, — so 
 that the teaching is in danger already of becoming merely 
 another subject for intellectual mastery — and examina- 
 tion." 
 
 " You are surely rather hard," I said, " though I admit 
 the danger. But you know how difficult a task it is to 
 keep clear of cram and confine oneself strictly to the de- 
 veloping side of a subject, when examinations are looming 
 ahead. But to return to our muttons, as the saying goes. 
 Professor Adler concludes his book with two short chapters 
 — one on the use of proverbs and speeches, and another, 
 consisting merely of a few cautions and recommendations 
 about the collection of evidence for each child's character, 
 on the way to individualize moral training. As to pro- 
 verbs, he regards them as mines of wisdom not easily to be 
 exhausted, and compares them to pegs on which the 
 memory can hang long chains of moral reflection. For 
 speeches, he would like some of those which are full of 
 high moral sentiment, such as parts of Isaiah, and the 
 speech of Socrates beJfore his judges, to be carefully ex- 
 
MORAL EDUCATION lOI 
 
 plained, and then recited by the pupils. The mere recita- 
 tion, he truly says, makes one for the time assume the 
 character of the speaker, and so retain a permanent mark. 
 This is a profound truth which other nations, and notably 
 the Americans, seem to have realized in their ordinary 
 curriculum. I have long wished that we applied it more. 
 
 " Thus, then, save for a brief summary and the appendix 
 I have mentioned on manual training, the book ends. I am 
 afraid I have kept you a very long time, but it seems to 
 me a contribution of such high value to the part of moral 
 education which it considers that it could not well be 
 lost labour to go over it at some length. It will, at all 
 events, be needless for us to propound a new method, so 
 that in the long run we shall have gained time rather than 
 lost it." 
 
IV 
 
 FOE. a minute or two there was silence ; we all felt that 
 we had come to the end of a long and difficult stage 
 on our journey. At last Mrs. Hindley broke the silence 
 by saying :— 
 
 " We are not a society, but I think we owe thanks to 
 Mr. Trelawney for introducing to our notice so valuable a 
 book. I for one shall get hold of it, and study it closely 
 as soon as ever I can." 
 
 "I must confess that the general impression left on 
 me," said Reynolds, " is that there is very great danger of 
 the development of casuistry. You remember we referred 
 to this point some time ago. You said then, Trelawney, 
 that you looked upon that danger as one of the most serious 
 that could attend moral training ; yet now you seem to 
 defend it." 
 
 " No ; I still maintain that the danger is very grave. 
 But on further reflection, I have come to the conclusion 
 that I rather overstated the strength of my views, and I 
 think that is valid which Dr. Hindley urged in answer, 
 that the responsibility rests with the teacher. After all, 
 whatever our methods, a good man will produce a good 
 result, and a bad man a bad result, though method may 
 help either to attain a higher ground. And if, as the 
 Doctor said, the teacher is alive to the danger of evoking 
 a casuistical spirit, then he must when needful change his 
 procedure. And really, at bottom, all this moral instruc- 
 tion, valuable as I admit it to be, I cannot help regarding 
 as quite subsidiary to the influence — largely intangible 
 and unconscious — which a man of high moral ideals will 
 produce without perhaps direct teaching at all. I grant 
 the value of knowing what is right, but for practice, in 
 the long run, we must rely upon example. If that is bad, 
 no amount of good instruction will ever produce the effect 
 we wish." 
 
 101 
 
MORAL EDUCATION IO3 
 
 " But you are rather evading the point," replied 
 Reynolds. '' I gather that you abandon your previous 
 position, that the danger is so great as to require us not to 
 run any, even the slightest, risk of incurring it — no, not 
 though great advantages accrue to the individual, or even 
 to the mass ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I should prefer to safeguard myself by securing 
 that only those were allowed to instruct in morals who 
 were both of exceptionally high character themselves and 
 greatly experienced in other teaching — who to a special 
 knowledge of the theory of morals added great success 
 with children in other subjects. Not every tyro should 
 attempt the work. Training would be essential in this 
 subject above all." 
 
 " You have then come round to the Doctor's opinion, 
 and quite leave out of sight the great value of faith ? " 
 
 " Will you define faith ? " 
 
 " For the present purpose I mean a willingness of 
 learners to accept a declaration that something is wrong 
 without always wanting the why and the wherefore." 
 
 At this Mrs. Hindley fired up, and exclaimed passion- 
 ately : — 
 
 " Oh, yes, our old friend obscurantism. Of the two I 
 would rather have a casuistical spirit than the dulness 
 of unreflecting right action which never leads you any 
 further." 
 
 "Then I think, Mrs. Hindley," said Reynolds, in a 
 graver tone, " jou are likely to be almost alone in your 
 opinion." 
 
 " But what would you do to secure progress ? " 
 
 " Let men of ripe years lead the way." 
 
 " But on your proposal you will only have one, where, 
 if moral instruction were imparted to all, you might have 
 a hundred." 
 
 " The world has waited many thousand years, and can, 
 no doubt, wait thousands more. As Christianity grows 
 and spreads, morality will advance." 
 
 " I really cannot in the least understand," Mrs. Hindley 
 began again, " why so many zealous Christians are afraid 
 of others helping on their work. But I think we had 
 better drop the argument; it is quite clear that Mr. 
 Reynolds's position cuts at the very basis of the system 
 
104 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 we are expounding ; I am afraid we shall never convert 
 him, and I am quite sure he will never convert me. On 
 this point it is manifest we shall part company." 
 
 "Is not the divergence," my wife said, ''more a 
 matter of degree than of principle ? I suppose we should 
 all admit that it is not possible to explain everything to a 
 child at once. Some things he is bound to take on trust." 
 
 " No doubt," said Mrs. Hindley ; " but I am morally 
 convinced that is not all Mr. Reynolds means." 
 
 " No ; I say quite openly I mean a vast deal more than 
 that. I mean that it is, considering the dangers, far better 
 that a child should not be taught to reason on morality at 
 all, but look upon moral law as irrevocable, unswerving, to 
 be obeyed at whatever risk. On the religious ground I do 
 not touch." 
 
 "There I must dissent," I said. "Asa schoolmaster 
 I am bound to hold that the best action is the most intel- 
 ligent." 
 
 " Yes ; but you have already confessed yourself a 
 renegade, so we shall not value your opinion too highly. 
 But does not Adler himself touch on this question ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," I said. "It is one of the difficulties he clears 
 — perhaps in deference to you I should say, tries to clear — 
 out of the way. In a searching passage he points out 
 that he suggested for the first period only Anschauung, or, 
 roughly, observation leading on to habit, and reserved 
 analysis till the grammar stage. Then after referring to 
 the limitations of custom, that it is quite powerless in pre- 
 sence of a new set of circumstances, he says at the same 
 time that moral rules must not break the force of habit. 
 Hence he says this : * He — i.e. the teacher — should always 
 take the moral habit for granted. He should never give 
 his pupils to understand that he and they are about to ex- 
 amine whether, for instance, it is wrong or not wrong to 
 lie. The commandment against lying is assumed, and its 
 obligation acknowledged at the outset. The only object of 
 the analysis is to discern more exactly what is meant by 
 lying, to define the rule of veracity with greater precision 
 and circumspectness, so that we may be enabled to fulfill 
 {sic) the commandment more perfectly.' And then he 
 insists on the helpfulness of externals — moral earnestness 
 in the teacher, pictures of noble men and women on the 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 105 
 
 walls, and perhaps songs, but above all instruction by- 
 word of mouth, for the due flow of the desired moral in- 
 fluence is hindered by the use of books. On the whole he 
 does not seem to think the difficulty so great as we have 
 feared. But the spirit of the instruction is the essential 
 point." 
 
 " One thing struck me about the suggested plan," said 
 Mrs. Hindley, "and that is that Professor Adler draws too 
 hard and fast a line between the elementary and more 
 advanced stages — the primary and grammar stages I think 
 are his terms." 
 
 " And," added my wife, " though he does, you say, refer 
 to the endowments of children by the time they reach 
 school age, he does not seem to give us much information 
 how they are to be brought up till that age is reached ; 
 while, if we may infer from what you told us, my dear, he 
 seems to consider that the whole business is finished at 
 about fifteen or sixteen." 
 
 " I beg your pardon," I replied ; " quite the contrary. 
 He refers more than once to questions which had better be 
 left for the more advanced period of training, questions 
 which he says he hopes to treat at length on some other 
 occasion. You must not suppose his subject is co-extensive 
 with our present enquiry. And your first objection can be 
 met by a similar argument ; he has apparently meant to 
 limit himself, though his title does not imply it, to educa- 
 tion at school, not at home. As for Mrs. Hindley's point, 
 which seems just, I think Professor Adler would defend 
 himself by saying that the criticism is more verbal than 
 real, and that, so far as real, the difficulty is unavoidable. 
 It is a difficulty which faces every one who discusses life in 
 the abstract — certainly in our present enquiry we shall 
 meet it again and again. We are obliged to treat the 
 separate parts of our subjects separately, and for clearness 
 to make logical divisions ; yet when we come to practice, 
 we find the closest connection between those logically 
 separated parts. And as for the special instance we are 
 now considering, it must be remembered it is a branch of 
 instruction, and there always comes a time in teaching any 
 subject when a leap of some kind proves inevitable. It is 
 never possible, with teaching in classes at any rate, so to 
 graduate your subject that there shall never seem a clear 
 
I06 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 line of demarcation. I would go further and say that even 
 if it were possible, it by no means follows that it is always 
 desirable. A boy often gets a great stimulus from being 
 put on some distance ahead of the point he seemed to have 
 last reached. Of course, it has to be done carefully, but 
 human arrangements cannot equal the gradual subtlety 
 and complexity of nature. I have little doubt, Mrs. 
 Hindley, that in practice you and Dr. Adler would quite 
 agree." 
 
 " May I venture on another criticism ? " said the Doctor. 
 "I think Professor Adler's view is not wide enough. 
 He seems to limit himself entirely to an improvement in 
 the practice of current morals, without considering their 
 future evolution or ever setting up a true ideal. Now I 
 hold that the most rapid advance in morals is likely to 
 come from setting before people such different ideals from 
 those now in vogue that the mere force of contrast will 
 stimulate them to think, and thinking once begun I have 
 no doubt of the result. It is to get people to think that 
 is the supreme difficulty. But of this there seems nothing 
 in Adler." 
 
 " That, I think, is true ; he limits himself to an express 
 improvement in the carrying into practice of current moral 
 codes, and does not profess to start a new ideal. But no 
 doubt he would have said that as his book was meant for 
 a present practical purpose, and not as an attempt to 
 sketch an ideal code with the best means of attaining it, 
 such a procedure would be quite out of place. And I must 
 confess, Doctor, that your method has great risks. You 
 may propound such a scheme that people will only shrug 
 their shoulders and scoff : ' Pooh ! ' they will say, * he's a 
 mere idle dreamer — nothing whatever to be learnt from 
 him ' ; and then what good have you done ? " 
 
 " You will have set some people thinking, at all events." 
 
 " Perhaps ; but you may reach no one at all. I am by 
 no means convinced that Adler is not wiser in setting to 
 work at what lies just before him, instead of running after 
 what I fear may prove the empty, delusive will-o'-the- 
 wisps which you introduced to us earlier this evening as 
 well as the other day." 
 
 ** Now I do call that hard lines," said the Doctor. " Just 
 when I thought I had made a convert, you throw cold 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 10/ 
 
 water, ice-cold water, on the whole of my pet dream. I 
 really did think I had got one supporter." 
 
 " Oh, yon know, Doctor, I always criticise — it is my 
 bent. And besides, you know I have expressly declared 
 that I am merely investigating ; it will be a long time 
 before I give in my adhesion to any professedly complete 
 theory, if indeed I ever do." 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Hindley, " I propose that we get on. 
 We certainly have yet a vast deal to do, and it is no good 
 wasting time on idle recriminations." 
 
 "Hear, hear!" I said. "Let us commit ourselves to 
 nothing, but make suggestions. I think it would be well, 
 as we have now expounded the method of instruction to be 
 used at school, and, mutatis mutandis, also at home, to go 
 over the ground we have already traversed, and see what 
 yet remains to be done. Who will undertake the job ? " 
 
 " I think you had better," said Mrs. Hindley, " as your 
 interest is the most direct. Moreover, you have been tak- 
 ing the place of prominence of late." 
 
 " Very well, I will try ; but in the further exposition the 
 Doctor will have to resume his place." 
 
 " No ; I think by now we are more in your province : 
 but we can settle that question by-and-bye. Meantime 
 proceed." 
 
 " I need hardly go over the Doctor's conditions which 
 we recapitulated at the beginning of the evening. Nor do I 
 propose to state in detail the points which Professor Adler 
 has emphasized, save to remind you that his procedure is a 
 method of instruction based upon strict educational prin- 
 ciples. One of these is very obvious — our advance must be 
 from simple to complex. A second, to which the author 
 himself constantly draws attention, is that we must go 
 from the known to the unknown — a maxim which, in this 
 particular case, shows that we must treat the different 
 points of morality, not as arranged in a logical system, but 
 as they appear in the life-history of the child. This is an 
 important consideration to which we shall probably have 
 to return, when devising our own complete scheme. 
 Thirdly, we must make our instruction interesting and, 
 above all, earnest. As for practice, we have so far only 
 come to the conclusion that we can get the intellectual 
 side of it developed by laying before the children cases of 
 
I08 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 wrong action, and asking them to show wherein the wrong- 
 ness lies, giving, as they grow older, reasons for their view. 
 In this respect we rather diverge from Professor Adler, 
 who would not have such tales of defective morality laid 
 before children at all. 
 
 " Leaving now Professor Adler, whose very name I should 
 think you must be tired of hearing, we will turn to the 
 points we laid down for ourselves, which were in the main 
 these. Dr. Hindley, with the keen-sightedness of a 
 medical man, insists upon the paramount importance of 
 attention to physical health first — the avoidance of what 
 Mr. Herbert Spencer calls physical sins. Then we also 
 had emphasized the importance of surroundings as shown 
 alike in artistic and moral influences, in which connection 
 we dealt with servants, and insisted above all things upon 
 the duty of the mother towards her children. We laid it 
 down, though not without some dissent, that the mother 
 must sacrifice every part of her work rather than leave 
 her children to others. We found that moral education 
 begins at least as early as the cradle, and that one of the 
 most valuable ways of promoting all kinds of development 
 is to provide for the child companions of like age. For the 
 most prominent characteristic of children is imitation, and 
 therefore we say that however perfect a scheme of moral 
 training we devise, what is of even more importance than 
 the scheme itself is the character displayed by the trainer, 
 and the necessity for the child always to see before him a 
 lofty ideal loftily carried out. How much watchful atten- 
 tion and self-denial this provision requires from all educa- 
 tors, I need hardly say. We must, moreover, be constantly 
 on the watch, and have all our commands obeyed without 
 fail. Uncertainty of discipline is worse than none, for it 
 encourages the spirit of gambling." 
 
 " That is an inserted remark," said Mr. Rejmolds. " I 
 am sure we never had it before." 
 
 " No, I do not know that we had ; but I think it was 
 hinted, and you must forgive me if occasionally I amplify 
 what was said. If you object, we will postpone the point 
 and discuss it later. But to proceed. The formation of 
 habits is of the first importance, and it was in this con- 
 nection that we learnt the imperative need of watchful- 
 ness. Further, we found that moral advance cannot go 
 
MORAL EDUCATION IO9 
 
 to tlie full without advance upon all lines at once — every 
 circumstance produces influence upon a human being. 
 We found, too, that in morals above all the wise proverb 
 holds good, ' Prevention is better than cure.' We saw the 
 importance of exact observation and of child study gener- 
 ally ; only by the collection of scientifically observed facts 
 can we hope to improve on our present makeshift methods. 
 Observation of children whose training has been defective 
 is in this regard of especial value. We discussed at some 
 length three of childhood's chief virtues — obedience, purity, 
 and truth ; and in connection with the last in particular 
 found that most people would say that the ideal standard 
 is quite beyond any reformer's attainment in the present 
 state of society." 
 
 " Oh ! " put in Mrs. Hindley. But I proceeded : — 
 " However, we are, I believe, sketching an ideal. Inci- 
 dentally we realized that education in parental duties 
 would be an indispensable part of all moral training. We 
 laid down three points as of cardinal importance — the 
 cultivation of a constant habit of cheerfulness ; the de- 
 velopment of a sense of far-reaching responsibility, our 
 least act often having an unending effect ; and closely 
 connected with this responsibility the need of habitual 
 , self -negation. The last two considerations in particular 
 are the two pointers of our whole system. We are to 
 keep our eyes fixed on them throughout ; by them all else 
 is to be directed. Finally, we touched upon the proper 
 place of faith, which is needful at first, but must by de- 
 grees retire before reason ; the danger of provoking a 
 spirit of casuistry, when we most of us agreed that if the 
 guiding mind is healthy there is but little to be feared ; 
 and lastly, the position and relative functions of reason 
 and habit in moral training. Here, I think, we might 
 put our position thus: Habit is essential, as being the 
 only sure guide in sudden emergencies, when one has 
 not time to think out the pros and cons, and, above all, 
 as being the only clue for young children — apart from 
 reverence and faith in their elders — before their reason is 
 adequately developed ; but in the end reason must always 
 be present, either justifying and supporting the habit, or 
 else leading to a modification. Reason is the supreme 
 judge, though the case may not always be laid before 
 
no MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 him. But morality in which reason has no part, where 
 mere custom is the sole guide, is dead, dead, dead. 
 
 "I think that constitutes a very fair sketch of the 
 main principles on which we are agreed. Do you admit 
 thus much ? " 
 
 As there was general assent, except for a reservation by 
 Mr. Re5rQolds of the right to a separate view on some 
 points, I went on : — 
 
 " We have often stated that our search is for an ideal. 
 But I am not quite clear in my own mind what this 
 search means. You, Doctor, I think, are mainly respon- 
 sible for the statement ; will you, before we go further, 
 definitely explain your thought, so that we may under- 
 stand the exact relation between our inquiries and actual 
 practice ? At present it seems to me we are trying to 
 kill two birds with one stone, and run a serious risk of 
 bringing down neither." 
 
 " My position," said the Doctor, " is simply this. We 
 are trying to discover how best to devise a scheme of 
 moral education. We have first of all to see what are 
 the conditions under which such a scheme can be worked 
 to any purpose, and then to plan adequate methods for 
 carrying it out under those conditions. Further, we are 
 bound to explain to ourselves what we mean by moral, 
 whether we are to be content with the current morality 
 so far as it admits of advance and improvement without 
 seeming absolutely impossible of attainment, or whether 
 we wish to sketch a project which shall lead to the culti- 
 vation of the highest form of morality that is ever likely, 
 I do not say to be realized, but even proposed. Now these 
 three heads we have been rather confusing ; but they 
 ought to be kept, at least in thought, entirely distinct. I 
 started with the first point I have named — the conditions ; 
 we then went on to the second — the method ; but the 
 third, which ought surely in logic to have come first, we 
 have only touched incidentally. Shall we then discuss 
 this question, whether it is worth while setting up a 
 standard of morality quite beyond the range of practical 
 plitics, or whether we had better confine ourselves to the 
 improvement — such as we may reasonably hope to effect — 
 of the actual opinion and, in morals, practice of the pre- 
 sent day ? " 
 
MORAL EDUCATION III 
 
 " Oh, yon know," said Mrs. Hindley, " I qnite agree 
 with yonr opinion. It is impossible to hope for a really 
 great advance nnless we can manage to startle into think- 
 ing. Mild revolutions are no good ; dynamite attracts 
 attention." 
 
 " Yes, and the policeman," said my wife. " I fear the 
 only influence our hare-brained schemes will give us may 
 be limited to the inside of a lunatic asylum." 
 
 " But it will surely in the end be possible," said 
 Reynolds, " to make an allowance for present conditions, 
 and so put in some practical suggestions without leaving 
 out the enormous advantage which a lofty ideal neces- 
 sarily brings." 
 
 " I am glad," the Doctor said, " that we have converted 
 you at last. At first you were always raising the objec- 
 tion that my suggestions were quite hopeless for any 
 practical effect." 
 
 " I did not at first see clearly whither you were tend- 
 ing, but when I did of course I fell in with your project. 
 One who believes in Christianity is of necessity an ideal- 
 ist. But we must be prepared to suffer a certain loss 
 from aiming too high." 
 
 " Don't you remember George Herbert's lines, my 
 dear ? " said Mrs. Reynolds, — 
 
 " ' Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high ; 
 So shalt thou humble and magnanimous be ; 
 Sink not in spirit : who aimeth at the sky 
 Shoots higher far than he that means a tree.' " 
 
 " I am afraid I am in a minority," said my wife, " so I 
 give up. We will not go into the question of the actual 
 amount of gain or loss attending the two methods — the 
 ideal and that which merely raises our current standard 
 by a little. Let us take the ideal." 
 
 " Very well," said the Doctor, " let this then be hence- 
 forth understood, that we have our eyes on a moral ideal 
 without of necessity hoping ever to attain it. At the 
 same time we cannot reconstitute the world, and hence 
 must have, at least as regards method, some reference to 
 the constitution of modern society, or what seem possible 
 developments of it. But on the score of feasibility no 
 further objections can be raised. 
 
112 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " Bearing in mind then that we are erecting a very lofty, 
 perhaps some may say, an unreal standard, we will go on 
 to consider the other two points I raised. And first, for a 
 moment, let us refer to the conditions under which we 
 might hope for great success. Many a time you tried to 
 upset me by objecting that my propositions were not 
 feasible ; but that objection we have agreed to debar. So 
 the only question I have now to put is this : Does any 
 one consider my proposals not desirable ? If any one does, 
 let him speak now, or for ever after hold his peace." 
 
 The Doctor paused a moment, and, as no one said any- 
 thing, resumed : — 
 
 " Then I take it that you consider my sketch of condi- 
 tions under which we might expect a healthy moral train- 
 ing as in themselves good, though I am not prepared to 
 claim, nor would you assent if I did, that others may not 
 suggest improvements. In no respect do I claim that my 
 ideal is perfect ; only that it sets in a clear light some 
 neglected elements. 
 
 " We now come finally to the point I mentioned second — 
 the methods of imparting a good moral training ; and it is 
 here that we have still a vast amount to do. We have 
 seen what a good method can mean in the hands of a com- 
 petent and trained teacher by the exposition which our 
 host has given us of Professor Adler's suggestions ; but I 
 wish to repeat, what has already been noticed, that the 
 method is confined solely to instruction, and instruction 
 too of a formal type and at a given age." 
 
 " Doctor," I interposed, " you will remember that Pro- 
 fessor Adler himself says that the training must be 
 carried further than the subject he prescribed for himself 
 allowed." 
 
 " Yes, I have not forgotten. I only wished to throw 
 up clearly the task we have before us. That is twofold. 
 First, to adapt the instructional methods already explained 
 to home, the advanced vears of school, and the University ; 
 for the discipline of life, which is the fourth period into 
 which all training may be divided, can be left to take 
 care of itself. Provided we have done well in the strictly 
 educational years, the tone of life at large will rise and 
 also its moral discipline. And, secondly, we have to con- 
 sider the extent to which we can supplement instruction 
 
MORAL EDUCATION II3 
 
 by experience, and review the various external conditions 
 special to each period of training which can help or 
 hinder, and that often materially, the growth of moral- 
 ity." 
 
 My wife here said, — 
 
 '^The adaptation of Professor Adler's methods to the 
 other periods in education ought to be a matter of no 
 great difficulty ; for certain rules of method for instruction 
 always hold, no matter what the subject nor how advanced 
 the pupil." 
 
 ''Very well then," said the Doctor, "you being ex- 
 perienced in the matter of education both at school and at 
 home, will perhaps, Mrs. Trelawney, relieve me of the 
 duty of expounding method as regards young children." 
 
 With these words the Doctor rubbed his hands and 
 looked delighted, while my wife began to protest that she 
 had not thought out the subject, and could not be ex- 
 pected to do it justice. The Doctor, however, rejoined : — 
 
 " Now, Mrs. Trelawney, it is no good trying to make 
 me believe that you are not able to deal with the matter 
 effectively. I know you are thoroughly interested in 
 education, well trained in it to boot ; and that a thinking 
 woman under such circumstances should not in the rear- 
 ing of her own children have fitted method correctly to 
 practice, I cannot believe." 
 
 Most of us expressed assent, but my wife still said : — 
 
 " There is a great difference between practice and the 
 formulation of the rules which guide your practice. You 
 can easily apply rules which you have long soaked in 
 without being exactly conscious that you are doing so ; 
 but it requires not a little time and thought to arrange 
 those rules and practice into a logical system." 
 
 " Mrs. Trelawney," the Doctor still went on, "I know 
 that when the mind has been in the habit of living in 
 familiar intercourse with an idea for a long time, and even 
 applying it, however unconsciously, to practice, any one 
 who, like yourself, has at all an analytical turn, and has 
 had any training in exposition, will be able to express his 
 ideas almost as well at a moment's notice as after long 
 deliberation. Very often the heat of sudden exposition 
 shapes the ideas into far better form than could ever be 
 produced by the coolness of reflection, no matter how 
 
 I 
 
114 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 prolonged, in the study beforehand. And even if you do 
 not lay out your thoughts in perfect logical order, we will 
 make all allowances ; for, after all, we are but talking^ 
 not writing a philosophical treatise." 
 
 Here Mr. Reynolds interposed with the remark, — 
 
 " It seems to me that before we listen to Mrs. Trelawney 
 we have a preliminary question of vast moment to settle ; 
 namely, what is to be our aim ? " 
 
 "I thought that was settled long since," replied the 
 Doctor : " the production of a perfectly moral man " 
 
 " An impossible attainment, I may remark in passing ; 
 but granted its possibility, still I would say your exposi- 
 tion is not sufficient. It is a vague generalization, and 
 what we want, so to speak, are media axiomata within 
 the reach of ordinary practice. We want some interme- 
 diate statements as to the questions we are going to dis- 
 cuss—definite declarations of the branches of morality we 
 are specially proposing to treat." 
 
 '^ Oh, that is a more complicated matter." 
 
 " We shall have, I suppose," I said, " to take a leaf out 
 of the philosophers' books, and arrange a classification of 
 duties. Only by this means can we hope to avoid being 
 lost in the dense wood of particular moral obligations." 
 
 " That is it," said Reynolds. '' Now who will give us 
 the classification ? " 
 
 " I think," said Mrs. Hindley, " that either you or the 
 schoolmaster ought to undertake the work. It is most 
 nearly allied to your professions." 
 
 " Well," said Reynolds, " suppose you do it, Trelawney. 
 If I remember rightly, you said Adler had a classification, 
 and gave us a short summary of it. Let us start with 
 that again, and, if we do not agree, modify it to suit our 
 own purposes. What is his arrangement ? " 
 
 " He says, first of all, that he wishes to keep clear of 
 any implication of metaphysical or religious theories, such 
 as are implied in most of the classifications propounded by 
 the philosophers ; and so he proposes to take for his 
 * guidance the objects to which duty relates, and disregard 
 the sources from which it flows.' Here it would be well 
 for us to follow him ; for though it is true that we cannot 
 be sure of being exhaustive unless our practice has a 
 theory behind it, still practice is our aim rather than 
 
MORAL EDUCATION II5 
 
 theory, and we must emphasize that side. Professor 
 Adler points out that we owe duties to the following 
 persons : (1) Ourselves ; (2) Our fellow-men generally, on 
 the common ground of their human nature ; (3) Certain 
 individuals among our fellow-men who stand to us in 
 special relations. Into some of these relations we are 
 born, from which fact spring, for instance, our duties to 
 our parents, brothers, and sisters. Others we can volun- 
 tarily assume ; but if we assume them, the duties they 
 originate are as binding as those last mentioned. As a 
 type may be taken the duties of husband or wife. Now to 
 take the subdivisions. Class 1 comprises duties relating to 
 our physical nature, to the intellect, and to the feelings ; 
 class 2, chiefly justice and charity ; class 3, the family 
 duties, natural or assumed; those originating in various 
 professional relationships — e.g.^ of employers and employed ; 
 our duties as citizens ; and, finally, certain others of which 
 Professor Adler says, ' The purely elective relationships of 
 friendship and religious fellowship give rise to certain 
 fine and lofty ethical conceptions, the discussion of which 
 may fitly crown the whole course.' " 
 
 " I miss one point," said Mrs. Reynolds, " though I re- 
 member you said he introduced it. I mean our duties to 
 the animals." 
 
 " There you will remember he takes a special position, 
 and will only allow of duties as regards the animals, not 
 duties towards them. He places them under the head of 
 duties towards all men — rather an odd collocation of 
 words." 
 
 " I should have thought they might better rank as a 
 department by themselves," said Mrs. Reynolds, and I 
 assented. 
 
 " But surely," said the Doctor, " his arrangement is not 
 unnatural, though the wording may be odd. Are not our 
 duties towards the animal creation merely an extension of 
 some of the duties, sympathy, for instance, and charity, 
 which we owe to all men ? " 
 
 " Perhaps ; but it will be only a small point of diver- 
 gence if we part company in this way. Can anybody 
 raise any other objection ? " 
 
 " Most certainly," put in Mrs. Hindley. "It is utterly 
 absurd to separate the family relationships from the duties 
 
Il6 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 to others. It may not lead to any practical harm, but I 
 think it would be far more satisfactory to start by dicho- 
 tomy, and divide thus : Duties must chiefly affect oneself, 
 or they must chiefly affect others. Self-regarding duties 
 again split into two — those which primarily affect the 
 body, and those which primarily affect our other parts. 
 These latter once more are twofold — on the one hand 
 duties to the intellect, on the other duties to the emotions 
 and the will, or, roughly speaking, to our moral side, our 
 character. Other-regarding duties likewise branch into 
 two — general and specific. Under the former come justice, 
 generosity, and so on ; under the latter our duties towards 
 father and mother, brother and sister, husband or wife, 
 and the members of our own profession, trade, guild, club, 
 or whatever association it may be. Many of these might 
 indeed be treated as but modifications of the duty of grati- 
 tude — one of our general duties to others. Civic duty too 
 is little more than an enlargement of the same idea. So 
 that I hold there are only two great main divisions of 
 duty : the old ones of duties towards ourselves, and duties 
 towards our neighbours." 
 
 " I suppose, then," Mrs. Reynolds added, " you also would 
 class our duties towards animals under the head of our 
 duties to others ? " 
 
 " No ; I forgot animals. I should make a separate class 
 for them, as after all they do stand on a different footing 
 from ourselves, and beginning my dichotomy higher up 
 should start with the general group * Duties to living 
 things ' and divide it into two branches — duties to animals 
 and duties to men. For the vegetable creation, though I 
 agreed with Mr. Trelawney's remarks some little time 
 since, it is no use, I fear, to consider it now ; but I am 
 by no means sure our remote descendants will not think 
 that we lived in outer darkness as we failed to admit 
 there were duties in their case too." 
 
 " And what about the supreme duty of all," said Rey- 
 nolds, " our duty towards God ? " 
 
 " That," rejoined the Doctor, " does not at present come 
 into consideration. It falls under religion, and you know 
 we have expressly put religion on one side." 
 
 " I do not think," said my wife, " that our classification, 
 •whether Professor Adler's or Mrs. Hindley's, for our im- 
 
MORAL EDUCATION II/ 
 
 mediate purpose matters much: for after all wliat we 
 shall have to consider is not the logical arrangement of 
 duties, though that is a great help in avoiding omissions, 
 but the proper educational order of treatment — an order 
 which is and can only be the order of development, the 
 order in which the various senses of the various duties 
 begin to appear." 
 
 *' That is practically," I said, " what Professor Adler 
 aims at. He tries to group the various duties of each 
 separate period of development round one predominant 
 duty, so that there is a fixed centre to give a unity to the 
 whole. The predominant duty varies at different ages 
 and under different circumstances — at school, for instance, 
 and at home." 
 
 " I am glad to hear that," my wife replied, " as it falls 
 in exactly with what I have just said. But I wanted to 
 add something more, viz. this, that the two classifications 
 now proposed seem to embrace very much the same cata- 
 logue of duties, the only great difference, it appears to me, 
 being the degree of importance attached to animals. This 
 being so, we may, I think, conclude that we have before 
 us the whole circle of duties. What then is its use ? 
 Not to give us the order of subjects to be treated, but 
 only to help us to make quite certain that in the complete 
 scheme we have omitted none. For my own part I do not 
 hesitate to say that, if you insist on my giving an exposi- 
 tion, I shall certainly want some such corrective, as I 
 shall have to take the duties in the order of their appear- 
 ance, not in the order which logic may require." 
 
 " There is another point yet," said the Doctor. " We 
 shall have to settle which of the duties are paramount — 
 by which I do not mean what Professor Adler means by 
 his ' predominant ' duties, but which are, as it were, the 
 final ones to which all others must tend. I have already 
 for my own part emphasized the two which I consider 
 more important than any others — the development of a 
 sense of never-ending responsibility, and the necessity of 
 complete self-abnegation." 
 
 " Surely both of these are merely general summaries of 
 altruistic duties," said Reynolds. 
 
 " Of course they come under that heading, but it does 
 not follow that it is unnecessary to specially name them. 
 
Il8 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 For my own part I believe that the mere enunciation of 
 them in a stringent form is one great step forward." 
 
 *' I do not see," said Mrs. Hindley, " that much is to be 
 gained by such generalizations. As Mr. Reynolds says, 
 they are merely aspects of our duties to others, and should 
 rather be regarded as separate duties than as a condition 
 of all duties or a summary expression for all. "Would it 
 not be better to say that they are more important or more 
 wide-reaching than other duties? But I hardly think 
 they are entitled to override them." 
 
 " I disagree with you, my dear," replied the Doctor ; 
 " painful as it naturally is to me to have to adopt such a 
 bold course, I am convinced that they can be taken as 
 principles which will enlighten us as to our duty when- 
 ever we are in doubt." 
 
 " Well, to avoid what looks like a fruitless discussion," 
 I said, " let us concede that these principles shall be ex- 
 pressly formulated and impressed upon our pupils. We 
 shall still have the ground left open for further detail." 
 
 " I should say," said Reynolds, " that from one point of 
 view no duty can be paramount. Every duty is a portion 
 of the whole good, and so far can be neither better nor worse 
 than its fellows. But granting the cases where duties 
 clash, shall we not find their relative importance as we go 
 along? For even if we do not actually treat of each 
 virtue separately in our present discussion, I think our 
 exposition ought to be such, I certainly hope it will, that 
 we shall leave no doubt in the minds of our pupils as 
 to the canons of reasoning to be applied whenever a con- 
 flict arises." 
 
 " Yes," I replied, " Reynolds, I think you have solved 
 the difficulty. It only now remains to consider the 
 necessary modifications of Professor Adler's methods, the 
 special conditions and general rules which may be laid 
 down for each stage of education, and, perhaps, at the end, 
 the whole series of duties according to either his or 
 Mrs. Hindley's catalogue. Either catalogue, we found, 
 will prove tolerably exhaustive." 
 
 " Now, Mrs. Trelawney," Mrs. Hindley said, " we expect 
 to be taught home-training by you. But I think, my 
 dear," she added, turning to her husband, " it would be 
 merciful not to press the matter now. It is already very 
 
MORAL EDUCATION II9 
 
 late, and if we adjourn for a few days longer, we shall all 
 of us have time to collect our thoughts, and Mrs. 
 Trelawney in particular will not be able to plead that she 
 has been set to a difficult task without adequate prepara- 
 tion. What do you say ? " 
 
 The Doctor assented, as it was quite clear we could not 
 finish our subject that night. So after a little discussion 
 about the most convenient day for the continuation of our 
 work — we finally decided on the following Tuesday week 
 — our friends left us to find their respective ways home, 
 while we retired to bed, thinking we had earned a good 
 night's rest by no light mental work. 
 
OUR next meeting was held at the Doctor's house, the 
 appearance of which certainly bore out his wife's 
 boast, that despite the time she bestowed on her children 
 the household arrangements had not suffered much. Mrs. 
 Hindley was indeed one of those women who seem never 
 to touch a thing without improving it ; full of refinement 
 herself, she imparted to her surroundings that nameless 
 charm which a woman of grace will often give without 
 the least worry or even seeming to aim at it. She was 
 bent, however, on the business we had in hand, and it was 
 not long before she called upon my wife to begin her 
 sketch of home education. We all turned to hear, and 
 though I knew most of what was to be said, as my wife 
 had often talked over points with me, I do not think I 
 was the least interested hearer ; for our discussions had 
 been haphazard, and on some points we disagreed. How- 
 ever, I hope I listened attentively and have given an im- 
 partial reproduction of what actually passed. 
 
 My wife began by expressing her thankfulness that 
 after all she had been forced to treat the subject ; " for," 
 she went on, " I did not know how much there was to 
 consider till I came to arrange my thoughts in logical 
 form. And further, my work has shown me how terribly 
 deficient practice generally is, and not least my own. For 
 this one result, if for no other, I have reason to be glad ; 
 for I trust that I shall not let my thoughts be barren, but 
 that they will lead to better action, to the benefit of the 
 suffering ones — my children. But I will not dwell more 
 on personal matters, but will try what I can do to express 
 clearly my views on the best way to teach and enforce 
 morality in the home. 
 
 " And first, as to method. It seems to me quite clear 
 that we cannot apply Professor Adler's method to any 
 
 180 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 121 
 
 great extent in trying to train children from the age of 
 nothing to the age of, say, six. Before the reasoning 
 powers have shown themselves at all it is obviously im- 
 possible to attempt to train them. And this consideration 
 leads me to lay down my first principle, which is that, as 
 the aim of all moral education is to influence practice, we 
 must teach the children to practise morality before we give 
 them reasons for it. In short, we must do as we agreed 
 long ago — develop a healthy habit first, and when that has 
 struck its roots securely, then go on to explain the 
 rationale of our action." 
 
 " Very true," said Mrs. Hindley ; " but when would you 
 begin the reasoning ? " 
 
 " That depends : but it will be difficult before the child 
 has learnt the meaning of words." 
 
 " But surely you would not deny that it is possible to 
 train children to, at all events, elementary forms of reason- 
 ing long before they are able to speak ? For instance, by 
 the help of signs it would be easy to make a child under- 
 stand the danger of playing with fire. We could put our 
 fingers in the candle-flame and draw them out again very 
 quickly with all the signs of being hurt. A child who 
 knew that he might not touch fire would easily see the 
 reason for the prohibition without going through the pro- 
 cess himself." 
 
 " The experiment," I said, " would be far more effective 
 if you let the child himself perform it." 
 
 " No doubt ; but it is too dangerous, and if it were an 
 act of the child's own, would not of necessity lead to 
 reasoning." 
 
 " But," I went on, " is not this reasoning merely a pro- 
 cess of the intellect ? " 
 
 " All reasoning is." 
 
 " Well, if that is true, I do not think we are bound to 
 discuss its methods when considering moral education. 
 We must take our conditions from it ready made." 
 
 " I also," said my wife, '' was going to object that in 
 any case the reasoning could not be called ethical. It is 
 reasoning about the sequence of physical events — about 
 causes and effects." 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said Mrs. Hindley. " I adduced 
 it as an argument on the necessity of obedience." 
 
122 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " Oh, I am sorry I did not quite see it in that light ; but 
 in that case of course my objection is void." 
 
 " Mine however," I interrupted, " is not. I still say 
 that it would be better for the child to perform the experi- 
 ment himself, and indeed I would say in any case this — 
 that you must never try to teach the child anything till 
 nature has shown indications of the need of it. That you 
 know is one of Froebel's great principles. To go out of 
 your way, as Mrs. Hindley suggests, to lay down a law 
 about fire to be obeyed before the child has tried the ex- 
 periment, I mean of course as long as you are by to watch, 
 is a bad mistake in method. Such a case as you put, Mrs. 
 Hindley, I therefore look upon as out of court." 
 
 " Well, perhaps," said Mrs. Hindley ; " but it was only 
 an illustration. I could replace it by another, were it 
 worth while." 
 
 "I do not think that it is," said my wife. "I quite 
 see your point and can imagine it might hold at times, 
 though not, I think, often ; though, as regards the actual 
 instance you gave, I quite agree with my husband. Still, 
 even though we grant that moral reasoning may begin in 
 a crude form even before speech, it is impossible to lay 
 down any rule in the abstract to be an infallible guide. 
 We must in given cases use our own observation and 
 check it by comparison with the detailed studies of in- 
 fancy which have been published at different times. By 
 such systematic scientific procedure we shall be led to 
 notice the proofs of the budding of the different powers at 
 the very first moment they appear, and further shall be 
 able to interpret intelligently movements and indications 
 of various kinds which to the unscientific seem quite 
 without meaning. If every mother would keep a careful 
 record of all the powers her child exhibits, with a state- 
 ment of the date of their first appearance, we should in 
 time have an invaluable record of " 
 
 " Mother's nonsense," I interrupted. 
 
 " Mother's observation and scientific facts, sir ! " my 
 wife rejoined with an emphatic tone, which the Doctor 
 supported by a look at me and the one word " Flippant ! " 
 
 " It is true," my wife went on, " and that I suppose is 
 what my incorrigible spouse there meant, that we should 
 require to check one account by another, and should want 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 23 
 
 some guarantee of the ability of the mother to scienti- 
 fically observe at all. But if women were, as they should 
 be, trained for the duties that will come on them as 
 mothers, that point would be involved. Of course the 
 finest accounts would live and the rest be discredited — 
 the fate that overtakes every form of scientific investiga- 
 tion. 
 
 " But I must go on. In saying that we should aim at 
 the establishment of habits, I should like to add that 
 though we can scarcely reason at first, we can give that 
 great reason which carries us so far, — which indeed is 
 often taken as the final groundwork of morality, and 
 which a child must for a time regard as sufiicient, — that 
 a thing is to be done because it is right, another thing 
 not to be done because it is wrong. We are apt in 
 discussing theories of morals to disregard the absolute 
 nature of morality. Now I am not prepared to say 
 that in the sphere of their investigations the moral 
 philosophers are not justified in doing this ; but for good 
 education — our business at present — we are bound to at 
 first treat morality as absolute. Hence I say, use this 
 reason to a young child : ' The act is right because it is 
 right, another is wrong because it is wrong.' As the 
 child grows older other reasons can be given, leading him 
 slowly, not perhaps consciously, to see that the rightness 
 itself has a reason ; but even to the days of leaving 
 school, I think it would be well to still keep in sight the 
 view of morality as absolute ; if any choose at last to 
 treat it as relative, that in its full extent is the duty of a 
 man, not of one who is still being trained. 
 
 " But for reasoning itself with a young child, I may 
 perhaps have rather overdone my point : I would only 
 say that it takes time for formal reasoning to be appre- 
 ciated, and the trainer must in every case avoid out- 
 running a child's capacity. This condition, thus ex- 
 plicitly stated, will not, I think, require repetition. It 
 applies to education of every kind and at every stage, 
 though the younger the children the more likely it is to 
 be infringed. But habit even the youngest can begin to 
 learn. Regularity can be enforced from the very first, 
 regularity of food, bath, walks and the like. This leads 
 unconsciously to the formation of habits which will never 
 
124 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 be broken save witb pain, and so may become the sure 
 foundation for more of morality than is supposed. Regu- 
 larity leads to self-control, and the checking — almost 
 automatic, one may say — of desires which for various 
 reasons it may be undesirable to gratify. By automatic I 
 mean that a check is applied before the mind has even 
 realized the full knowledge of the evil desired. And how 
 much of harm too is thus escaped by preventing the mind 
 even dwelling for a moment on an undesirable course! 
 Temptation is avoided and the right secured. Such regu- 
 larity, of course, involves training in what has already 
 been shown to be the child's chief virtue — obedience ; for 
 without obedience it would be impossible to attain. And 
 thus training to obedience is the first training which a 
 child can get in morality at all. And here I may perhaps say 
 that the discussion about the proper time at which to in- 
 troduce reasoning to a child will, I think, in experiment 
 prove futile, for if properly trained the child will long 
 accept as immutable the laws laid down, and will not pro- 
 bably think of questioning them till the idea is suggested 
 by others. When he begins to question, however, then is 
 the time for exposition — or when he begins to rebel. 
 
 " While aiming at the development in this way of the 
 feeling of obedience and obligation, we shall be culti- 
 vating, more or less unconsciously, the primary spring of 
 all moral action — the feeling of love. ' Obedience, grati- 
 tude, trust and love,' says Pestalozzi, * are the beginnings 
 of conscience,' and it is not the least of the debts that we 
 owe to that extraordinary man that he first insisted on 
 the importance of love as the chief factor in moulding 
 children throughout their career. Certain it is that all 
 sense of morality can be traced in the long run back to 
 love — love of one's parents, love of mankind, love of God. 
 And the cultivation of love has this particular advantage, 
 that it can be relied upon as a guide, if properly trained, 
 where all fear of punishment would be of no effect." 
 
 My wife pausing here for a moment, Dr. Hindley said 
 with a sly glance : — 
 
 " I am glad, Mrs. Trelawney, to find that I have made 
 at least one convert." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " replied my wife. 
 
 " Why, when your husband first told you that I had 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 25 
 
 stipulated that love must be the guiding element in moral 
 education, and, therefore, in education as a whole, you 
 manifested not a little surprise." 
 
 " I was not aware that I made any comment." 
 
 " No ; but you looked one, and that pretty forcibly," 
 replied the Doctor ; " though I admit that afterwards you 
 seemed to indicate approval." 
 
 " Well, it was rather a startling proposition at first ; but 
 I have been considering it since, and having, moreover, in 
 the last few days been looking at Pestalozzi again, I have 
 come to the conclusion that he is right, though I should 
 not like to fit his theory on to present conditions. But in 
 any case you must remember that I am limited now to 
 home education only." 
 
 " I think you made a bold statement, my dear," I said, 
 " when you declared that all one's sense of morality can 
 in the long run be traced back to love. The philosophers, 
 I fear, would fall foul of you." 
 
 " I think, perhaps, I might put my view a little more 
 clearly. I mean that every good action — action, that is, 
 which involves compliance with a correct standard of 
 morality — is originally induced by the desire to please 
 some one — that is, it is ultimately based upon love." 
 
 " But what about the motive to which the old theologians 
 were so fond of appealing — fear ? " asked Mrs. Hindley. 
 
 "If an action is dictated by fear," was the reply, " I 
 should not call it a perfectly moral action. It may have 
 the outward semblance of one, and may be a step — I will 
 not say unavoidable — in the right direction, but perfectly 
 good it cannot be." 
 
 " I see now what your position is," said Mrs. Hindley, 
 " and do not feel inclined to controvert it ; will you go 
 on?" 
 
 " There is another feeling," resumed my wife, " which 
 shows itself very early, often even before speech, and 
 which requires most careful handling, as it is the basis 
 of much of our social life — I mean the sense of justice. 
 Here, in particular, I think, we shall find the first call made 
 upon us to give a reason for our actions and decisions. A 
 child is apt to grow very jealous if it thinks it has suffered 
 unfair treatment in comparison with another child ; or if it 
 thinks that it deserves a certain reward which is not 
 
126 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 given, it feels hurt, and is liable to have its confidence in 
 those in charge shaken, perhaps for ever. Take, for 
 instance, what is so common with quite young children, 
 jealousy of the petting bestowed upon some one else — it 
 may be merely the fact of the father or mother taking 
 another child on to his or her knee. What is to be done ? 
 My own method of procedure is this. If the child is too 
 young to understand language, I continue my demonstra- 
 tions of affection to the other, but bestow some attention 
 at the same time upon the one who feels aggrieved. I 
 usually find that a very little notice is sufficient in such 
 cases to kill the jealousy. But if it is still shown very 
 vividly, then I disregard it altogether, as a lesson to the 
 child that he cannot expect to have the whole of the world 
 bowing down to him. But I make a favourable oppor- 
 tunity to divert the attention of the jealous child, and 
 then, after a reasonable period has elapsed, abandon my 
 petting of the other, without, however, bestowing marks 
 of affection upon the one who has displayed the evil feel- 
 ing. If, however, the child can speak, then I point out 
 first of all that what is fair for one child is fair for the 
 other, and that the one whom I do not happen to have 
 taken has his turn at another time. Next, I appeal 
 directly to the child's feelings, asking if he does not love 
 his brother or sister, and if it is no pleasure to him to 
 know that his brother or sister is happy. In some such 
 way we can make advance upon two or three lines con- 
 currently. But, above all, when jealousy has once been 
 stirred, I do my utmost to avoid stirring it again, as I 
 am convinced that with children of general healthiness of 
 disposition it will die in course of time a natural death, if 
 due care be taken never to expose them to circumstances 
 where it may be aroused. There is no vice which lives so 
 entirely by indulgence, and which can be so readily killed 
 by neglect." 
 
 " But don't you think," said Mr. B;eynolds, " that it is 
 just as well to put a child in circumstances where it will 
 have to make an effort to overcome its own evil bent ? 
 Otherwise, when will it learn self-control ? " 
 
 **Ah," my wife said, ''there you raise once more the 
 most difficult of all questions in moral education — the 
 question whether it is wise to deliberately practise the 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 12/ 
 
 young in morality in cases where their failure to respond 
 to our efforts is likely to do them moral harm. We have 
 already touched briefly upon this question, but have never 
 really settled it. For my own part I have no hesitation in 
 saying that in the case supposed I would never inten- 
 tionally put a child under conditions where his feelings of 
 jealousy might be aroused, until I was practically sure 
 from long watching that the victory would be on the right 
 side. And who would say he was sure of that in dealing 
 with the very young ? Remember I am arguing for the 
 present chiefly about children who cannot yet speak." 
 
 '' I think there," said Mr. E-ejniolds, '' I should certainly 
 agree with you, but am not so sure with those of larger 
 growth. When children can speak they are capable of 
 understanding, at least to some extent, the grounds of 
 action ; we can point out to them the wrongness of their 
 attitude, and easily exhort them to be good." 
 
 " Ah," said Mrs. Hindley, " exhorting is of course a 
 clergyman's special work, and that, perhaps, Mr. Reynolds, 
 is why you adopt that view ; but to me it is absolutely 
 loathsome. Habit is the point at which we must aim in 
 the case of children as long as they are at home, — and 
 afterwards also to a very large extent, — and every time 
 you put temptation in a child's way you break the habit 
 or run the risk of doing so." 
 
 " But you can form a habit of overcoming temptation." 
 
 ''Also of falling into it. I say keep your children 
 away from evil as long as ever you can. If temptation 
 comes, then they must face it ; but never deliberately put 
 it in their way." 
 
 " I did not mean quite so much as that, only that you 
 should not go out of your way to put them beyond the 
 reach of temptations, lest by so doing you should bring 
 them in the end not to strong and healthy habits, but 
 only to the loss of all self-control." 
 
 " No, no, no, a thousand times no ! " energetically ex- 
 claimed Mrs. Hindley. "It is like the doctrine Clough 
 ridiculed : — 
 
 ' Thou shalt not kill ; but needst not strive 
 Officiously to keep alive.' 
 * Lead us not into temptation ' is the highest maxim, and I 
 am surprised you should advocate anything else." 
 
128 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 Mr. Rejmolds looked thoughtful, and answered nothing, 
 while Dr. Hindley said, — 
 
 " I think Mrs. Trelawney's distinction the correct one — 
 probably the only one that will ever give satisfaction in 
 considering this difficult point in the abstract — that we 
 may expose to temptation where the failure to resist it 
 will not lead to grave harm, but that where, as in the 
 matter of jealousy, such exposure of necessity evokes an 
 evil feeling which may easily grow very strong, then it is 
 our imperative duty to keep the child from it as much as 
 possible." 
 
 " It would make things clearer. Doctor," I said, " if you 
 could give us an instance where grave moral harm would 
 not be likely to be the result." 
 
 "Oh, that is easy enough. Take the case of giving 
 from benevolence. There I consider we should all be 
 justified in putting children in the way of exercising the 
 virtue, as, even supposing they failed to respond,— and 
 failure might not unfrequently come, — we could hardly be 
 charged with having fostered a vice that is very malignant, 
 save only in rare cases. And further, by means of ap- 
 propriate teaching, opportunities of practice at the right 
 moment, and example above all, it would probably be easy 
 to get the child to act differently hereafter." 
 
 " Yes, I see. Certainly the matter is very grave," I 
 said, " and I personally should be very chary of de- 
 liberately exposing a child to any temptation at all. 
 Temptation will come of itself often enough ; we shall 
 then be able to watch how it is faced." 
 
 " But there is another point," said Reynolds once more. 
 " Supposing you know a temptation is coming which you 
 might remove, or you intentionally put a child in the way 
 of one, would you not consider that you were acting 
 justifiably, if you took the precaution of warning him 
 explicitly, and set before him the principles by which he 
 should be led ? " 
 
 " In fact," said Mrs. Hindley, " the old practice of tell- 
 ing a child not to do a thing, and then leaving him just 
 where he can do it. Bluebeard and his wives over again. 
 No, certainly not." 
 
 " I do not think I should go quite as far as you, my dear," 
 said the Doctor. "I think there is, perhaps, something to 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 29 
 
 be said for Mr. Reynolds in this case. It is often useful 
 to test a child's progress, and, under the same conditions 
 as we laid down just now, I should say this method of 
 exposing to temptation would be a very good and even 
 salutary one." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear you say so," rejoined Mrs. Hindley. 
 " I cannot but look upon it as distinctly immoral to deliber- 
 ately expose a child to temptation under any circum- 
 stances whatever." 
 
 I saw Mrs. Hindley was getting warm, so said to smooth 
 matters down : — 
 
 " Surely it all turns upon the actual case. Practice 
 must be had somehow, and if we arrange the experiment, 
 we can temper the wind to the shorn lamb. I think that, 
 under circumstances not hard to imagine, even Mrs. 
 Hindley would not object to expressly putting or leaving 
 her children in the way of some temptations. On the 
 general principle I agree with her, but logic must not be 
 pressed too far in practical matters. The whole question 
 is one of detail, and I should think in practice my wife's 
 rule would be a sufficient safeguard. But will you con- 
 tinue your exposition, my dear ? I am afraid we have 
 rather run away from you." 
 
 " Oh, well, we have got some light on a very important 
 matter, which we should have had to discuss sooner or 
 later, and it is, perhaps, just as well that it has oome now. 
 Let me see, where did I leave off ? Oh, yes, I was talking 
 about children's sense of justice. This is of great moment, 
 because it gives us the first opportunity of developing 
 directly the altruistic feeling ; for though primarily justice 
 has reference to oneself, it is very easy to lead children's 
 reason to see — though it may be long before their nature 
 quite responds — that what applies to themselves applies 
 equally well to others. In fact, to use a paradox, it is 
 just their sense of justice which teaches them justice." 
 
 " Do you know Rousseau's treatment of the question ? " 
 I asked. 
 
 " Yes ; and though he seems outrageous in trying to go 
 back to first principles at once, there is much to be said 
 for the line he takes. Undoubtedly the sense of justice is 
 very closely connected with a sense of property, and if we 
 can succeed in getting implanted clearly in a child's mind 
 
130 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 what constitutes property, and how it is connected with 
 justice, we shall have gone a long way towards fixing in 
 him a high standard of morality by which to guide him- 
 self in after-life." 
 
 " Certainly," said the Doctor, " excepting charity, I 
 think there is no point in ordinary life where the standard 
 of morality is so shockingly low as in the matter of justice. 
 We are so much misled in our attitude towards it by our 
 own prejudices and interests." 
 
 " Of course much of what I have said," resumed my 
 wife, " reaches far beyond the years from which I first 
 started. It seems to me that, if we watch carefully be- 
 fore a child can give clear utterance to his feelings and 
 thoughts to see what his attitude is towards different 
 moral questions, we shall have done most of what can be 
 done in the very early days, and especially if we avoid 
 exposure to temptation. But as the child grows and 
 understands language, we must adopt something of Pesta- 
 lozzi's method, which is practically what it seems Professor 
 Adler did, and give the child instruction by object-lessons 
 in morality. And this must be in two branches : for one 
 thing, we must get at the child's own ideas on morality, 
 his views on cases that actually occur ; and for another we 
 must illustrate by appropriate narratives, tales and poems, 
 such as are within the child's comprehension. I am a 
 very great believer in the power of poems and tales of 
 noble deeds. Pestalozzi clearly thought much of it, as 
 indeed he did of direct instruction in morality altogether. 
 He even proposed to start in rather an odd way, by deduc- 
 ing moral facts from the use of language. But without 
 going so far as that, I think we may safely affirm that the 
 inductive method is the true one — to treat each question 
 as it arises, and get the child's judgment upon it ; then, if 
 necessary, and it the point can be established to a child 
 without confusing his sense of right and wrong, we must 
 correct the judgment, but not necessarily, or perhaps for a 
 long time, draw any general inferences." 
 
 "In fact," I said, " we must first gather our instances, 
 then argue from particulars to particulars, and only reach 
 the general propositions comparatively late." 
 
 " That seems to me nature's method of procedure, and 
 I hardly think we xjan better it at present," my wife 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 131 
 
 replied with a gentle smile. '^ But we must also encour- 
 age children to lay their difficulties before us, and instead 
 of responding with a specific instruction lead them on to 
 express, so far as may be, for themselves a general 
 principle, which we must then see that they can apply. 
 In this way we shall train not merely their moral judg- 
 ment, but also their independence and power of decision. 
 
 " But you know I feel all this time as if I were talking 
 the merest commonplace. Rousseau and Pestalozzi have 
 well-nigh covered the field, if we make allowances for the 
 former's extravagances and the want of system shown 
 by the latter. It is simply the application of their 
 principles that is needed, and how can we get that by 
 sitting and talking here ? More recently Froebel from one 
 side, and Mr. Herbert Spencer from another have em- 
 phasized the factor, which had been too much neglected — 
 the training given by the external world and circum- 
 stances ; and beyond this all seems detail." 
 
 " But much still requires to be reduced to practice," the 
 Doctor said ; ''for Professor Adler has only treated one 
 department. Would you in home training do as he does 
 in school, give set lessons ? " 
 
 " In so far as one gives set lessons in anything, I think 
 one should give set lessons in morality. Systematic treat- 
 ment ensures comprehensiveness, and leads to appreciation 
 of the importance of a subject. At the same time, of 
 course, the set lessons to young children must always be 
 very short, and need only be taken from time to time as 
 occasion requires. Notes, however, must be kept of the 
 subjects treated, and though the lessons may come at 
 irregular intervals, they must be built on a logical con- 
 nection—be parts of one complete whole. For the hap- 
 hazard, spasmodic treatment of questions merely according 
 as they arise is answerable for much of the present defec- 
 tiveness of our ordinary moral training even in homes of 
 high tone. To me it seems that a suitable occasion for 
 giving instruction on these matters to children presents 
 itself naturally at family prayers ; and then, too, it can 
 with advantage be combined with simple illustration 
 from points of practice. I specially emphasize the word 
 simple, because to introduce children to a mass of detail 
 would be a fatal mistake. Still I admit that the main 
 
132 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 portion of the early training in morality must consist 
 solely of checking tendencies to vice, supplemented where 
 it is desirable and possible by an exposition of the wrong- 
 ness of indulgence. I do not think we shall lose anything 
 by always giving reasons where they are within the com- 
 prehension of the child ; and where they are not, then a 
 parent who had won the confidence of her child can al- 
 ways fall back upon the child's trust and love, thus exercis- 
 ing faith. There is another occasion, too, as Pestalozzi 
 showed, where the parent can get hold of the child with 
 advantage ; when the child is giving vent to his love for 
 his parents, we can appeal to him always to follow ways 
 that will please, and show what those ways are. 
 
 " In the home it is probably better, as a rule, to deal 
 with the children individually than to confine oneself to 
 general talk addressed to them all together, as the greater 
 part of moral progress during the early years depends so 
 much on helping the young to resist, especially those 
 temptations to which each in particular is prone. A child, 
 too, then, is ready to open his heart and discuss difficulties, 
 appealing for help. It may not be quite the same at 
 school when he has grown older and more reticent, and is 
 often able to apply his lesson without help from others." 
 
 " What do you think, Mrs. Trelawney," Mrs. Hindley 
 asked, " of Froebel's insistence on the importance of keep- 
 ing pets ? " 
 
 " I think that though there is much to be said for it, 
 there is also something against it. Undoubtedly there is 
 in most children's minds natural sympathy with living 
 things — they like watching and playing with cats and 
 dogs and other pets ; and undoubtedly this is a very good 
 introduction to training in that sympathy for other 
 creatures which in time will probably from animals 
 spread to man. Interest, too, in things round us leads to 
 care for their well-being. But, on the other hand, I never 
 can quell the feeling that in many cases the keeping of 
 pets means a certain amount of cruelty, not the less 
 dangerous for being latent. In the case, for instance, of 
 birds and rabbits, it involves confinement, and the con- 
 sequent blunting of a child's perception of what is most 
 conducive to the happiness of other creatures. The sin 
 is perhaps more of omission than of commission, but it is 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 33 
 
 a sin nevertheless. Still, if by pets we practically mean 
 none but the domesticated animals, such as now without 
 restraint naturally seek the companionship of man, then I 
 quite agree that the training is invaluable. 
 
 "In this connection I should like to add one caution. 
 Beware of cruelty. We are often told that children are 
 naturally cruel. I do not believe it." 
 
 " Nor I," interposed Mrs. Hindley. " I call it a mon- 
 strous libel." 
 
 " But surely they do very cruel things ? " said Rey- 
 nolds. 
 
 " Yes," replied my wife ; " but that is from ignorance. 
 It is in most cases experimentation — a desire for know- 
 ledge ; or, if you like, mere curiosity. It can easily be 
 overcome by a clear explanation of the cruelty involved — 
 a point which the child, at least the boy, will rarely think 
 of for himself. But that was not what I meant so much, 
 as that we should beware of ever letting children see 
 cruel sights. It is sad to think how we ourselves have 
 our sympathy with suffering often blunted merely by con- 
 stant familiarity with it ; how much more likely is this 
 to be the case with a child who cannot reason." 
 
 " Yet here surely," said Mr. Reynolds, " I may repeat 
 my point, that without actual experimentation we shall 
 never be able to train in true sympathy and actual abhor- 
 rence of cruelty." 
 
 " On the contrary, I think we can train quite well by 
 stories, where the feeling aroused will be one of pure 
 sympathy, while the perceptions will not be blunted by 
 familiarity. In fact, I rather think the child's horror at 
 the sight of cruelty, when he does actually come across it, 
 will be all the greater from his previous want of experi- 
 ence. Moral indignation ought to form a large part of 
 our objection to evil in any shape, and this can certainly 
 be aroused by narrative as well as by actual events. 
 Don't you think so. Dr. Hindley?" 
 
 " Most assuredly I do ; and in any case, Reynolds, don't 
 you think the child will be likely soon enough to come 
 across cases of cruelty, — the whole world reeks with it, — 
 however much we may try to screen him from them ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but I still maintain that we can do much when 
 we have the circumstances, as it were, under our control — 
 
134 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 much more than if we wait for the circumstances to pre- 
 sent themselves under complications. We are like an 
 experimentalist in natural science ; he can learn so much 
 more, if he can arrange the conditions and form of his 
 experiment, than if he has to wait for nature or chance 
 to present the phenomenon he wishes to study." 
 
 " I grant that it would from some points of view be a 
 more effective proceeding," said my wife ; " but I cannot 
 think that morals are parallel in all respects to natural 
 science. We cannot treat them as subjects for experi- 
 ment just as we should anything else. There is too much 
 danger attached to the process. Just as the chemist treats 
 chloride of nitrogen only at a distance and well-protected, 
 so must we be cautious in experimenting on morals. Like 
 that substance, morals are an explosive compound. The 
 prevention of the formation of a bad leaning is better than 
 its cure ; it is wiser to wait for our experiments to present 
 themselves than to run the risk of a dangerous result. 
 But I must pass on. 
 
 " Truth is one of the virtues that earliest calls for train- 
 ing, and that the most careful. We have already dis- 
 cussed it at some length and with particular regard to 
 home training, so I do not think I need cover the ground 
 again, especially as, unfortunately, I differed from Mrs. 
 Hindley on an important point of possible practice. I 
 would only say this in rectification of any misunder- 
 standing of my real position, that we must ourselves be 
 most careful never to let even the youngest child see us 
 do anything that he might interpret into an attempt to 
 practice deception, whether in word or in act. For, after 
 all, lying is not chiefly with the lips. Exaggeration has 
 already been handled, and I do not think I need repeat 
 what Mrs. Hindley urged. I will merely say that the 
 tendency to lie shows itself extremely early, and a parent 
 must be on a constant look out for it. But the virtue of 
 truth has one valuable quality which many others have 
 not — valuable, I mean, from the point of view of the 
 educator of the very young ; at that stage of life it practi- 
 cally conflicts with no other duty — it can be declared for 
 the time to be absolute. I do not think, if our teaching 
 has been sound, that as the child grows older and can 
 draw distinctions, he will have any difficulty in deciding 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 135 
 
 on the cases where truth is overridden by higher considera- 
 tions. That is a point which will certainly come late. 
 Now the reason why it is important to be able to train in 
 a virtue which is at first absolute, is twofold : in the first 
 place, the child will be confused if he is constantly coming 
 across exceptions, and his moral perceptions will be 
 blurred altogether ; in the second place, at first the child 
 is liable, as M. Perez well says, to think that right con- 
 sists of what is not forbidden, while wrong is that which 
 he has been told not to do. Hence he will rely entirely 
 upon others, and when a case presents itself which has 
 had no rule laid down for it, will probably be at sea. 
 Under these circumstances truth will be his compass and 
 will always point him straight until his own knowledge 
 can correct it. 
 
 " In general, it seems to me that the training of quite 
 young children must have these main aims — five in all — 
 before it : the suppression of all evil manifestations, such 
 as jealousy, temper, anger, greediness, to which the diver- 
 sion of the thoughts is often a great help ; the cultivation 
 by this means of self-control ; the development of love and 
 reverence for one's parents, and through them of sym- 
 pathy for all living beings ; the direct practice of some of 
 the easier and simpler virtues, self-denial, truth-speaking, 
 generosity and the like ; and, finally, the habit of observ- 
 ing and collating moral facts and passing judgment upon 
 them — all, of course, in proportion to the child's develop- 
 ment. Educators often make a great mistake in trying 
 to force things on children's attention in which they are 
 as yet unable to take interest. In moral matters this has 
 most fatal results, and above all in religion." 
 
 Here Mrs. Reynolds interrupted with some energy. 
 
 ''Mrs. Trelawney, I am surprised to hear you say that. 
 Surely you do not mean to say it is possible to begin 
 training a child in religion too early." 
 
 " I most certainly do mean to say it," was the 
 reply, " and what is more, I think it is a very, very com- 
 mon mistake, and is answerable for a great deal of the 
 hostility to religion, or at least indifference, which is so 
 common nowadays." 
 
 " Would you explain ? " said Mr. Eeynolds. 
 
 " Certainly. You will grant, I suppose, to begin with, 
 
136 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 that the religious sentiment is one of great complexity, 
 and, at all events in its full power, beyond the grasp of the 
 quite young ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Now all I say is this : If you begin to inculcate reli- 
 gion properly so-called when the child has not yet got its 
 power of abstraction sufficiently developed to understand 
 what is meant by God, you are talking to him mere words, 
 and he will come at last to think that religion is nothing 
 but empty talk ; for by the time he is reaching an age 
 when he is able more or less to grasp what it really means, 
 and can feel an affection for an unknown person in virtue 
 of his moral attributes, he will probably have grown tired 
 of the whole business, owing to the sense of unreality he 
 has so long attached to it." 
 
 " Surely it is a matter of ordinary common-sense and 
 judgment," said Mr. Reynolds. 
 
 " No doubt ; but my point is that in this matter most 
 people are devoid of common-sense. The constant talking 
 to young children is the main origin of the cant that is so 
 often connected, I am grieved to say, with religious pro- 
 fession. Above all, I think a great mistake is made in 
 taking children to church while they are still quite young. 
 The service is too long and cannot be understood by them ; 
 and though they may like it for a change, in most cases, 
 according to my observation, it merely becomes a weari- 
 ness to the flesh. They may perhaps develop awe for a time, 
 and so far a good result is produced ; but we all know 
 how changeable are children's feelings — how incapable 
 they are of maintaining the same feeling for any length 
 of time. Judging from what I have seen in school, I 
 should say that no child ought to go habitually to church 
 under the age of ten, and even then only to special services, 
 which should be at once short and such as a child can 
 understand." 
 
 " But," said Mr. Reynolds, " don't you overlook the 
 value of a habit of church-going ? What we are used to 
 when young becomes to us a necessity when old ; and 
 hence I like children from the very first to associate their 
 church with their higher feelings." 
 
 " I do not deny the value of the habit, if it is possible 
 to form it ; but in this particular case, when we know 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 57 
 
 what are the seductions to which the child will be ex- 
 posed later on, I am not sure that the mere habit will be 
 of any great effect. Moreover, monotony, which is very 
 likely to be felt while the child is not yet capable of 
 proper religious emotion, is a danger that cannot be too 
 carefully avoided ; in religion it is, as in ordinary educa- 
 tion, to use the words of Thring, the greatest enemy with 
 which the teacher has to deal. Moreover, the matter of 
 church-going is exposed to one peculiar difficulty which 
 does not appear always in other matters connected with 
 morality — people are apt to regard one as actually doing 
 wrong, if one does not go at regular intervals. Now this 
 attitude is especially fatal in dealing with the young. It 
 should be our aim here, as in training to morality in 
 general, to let the child lead himself. I am convinced 
 that if we allowed children to go to church as they pleased 
 and never pressed them to go when they did not want to 
 do so, instead of getting tired of it and often abandoning 
 it when they can, they would look upon it as a pleasure 
 which would attract them always. I chose, indeed, this 
 question of church-going, on which I do not expect general 
 agreement, merely as the first illustration which occurred 
 to me of the dangers of forcing emotion on a child before 
 his powers are ripe ; but I think the principle I have been 
 trying to explain applies to all our dealings with the 
 young. We must wait upon nature, not anticipate it ; we 
 must, as Froebel urges, let the child guide us, not our- 
 selves guide it. Induction must rule ; our arguments 
 must be from the child's experiences ; we must, as I have 
 already said, have true Pestalozzian object-lessons in 
 morality." 
 
 " Ah, my dear," I said, '^ I was wondering whether 
 you would at last acknowledge the sources of your inspira- 
 tion. All you have been laying down seems to me but an 
 application to practice of Pestalozzi's theories." 
 
 " I am quite aware that it is, and thought I had already 
 admitted my debts. I do not suppose that anything I am 
 saying is of my own origination ; but it is monotonous to 
 be constantly stopping to say : This is from So-and-so ; 
 this from somebody else. Moreover, I thought that we 
 were anxious here rather to get at some practicable scheme 
 than to go into the history of education in its entirety." 
 
138 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " You will remember, Mrs. Trela^vmey," said the Doctor, 
 " that I have expressly stipulated that my part of the dis- 
 cussion was not of necessity practical, but was to be 
 regarded merely as an ideal which it would be worth 
 while to keep before our eyes." 
 
 " Yes ; but at the present point in our enquiry it seems 
 to me that the ideal is consistent with the practical. But 
 as to acknowledging my authorities, I will say here once 
 for all that I do not claim anything as my own. I have 
 read in such very different books and at such very 
 different times, on moral education, without any thought 
 of expounding the subject, that I have not taken the 
 trouble to carry in my head the exact sources of all that 
 I say. But I hope I do not appear ungrateful. Some- 
 times I know where I got an idea, but far more often not, 
 even though I may be distinctly aware that the thought 
 is not my own. Personally I consider that my main in- 
 debtedness is to five men — Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Rosmini, 
 Froebel and Herbert Spencer." 
 
 " I should like to add another name for my own part," 
 I said, " that of Plato." 
 
 "Ah, he is rather beyond my range, I grieve to say." 
 
 "But what of the Bible? " put in Mr. Reynolds. " I 
 am amazed that you should make no mention of it." 
 
 " Oh, that was because I was thinking of systematic 
 treatises on education. If I were to begin to enumerate 
 works which are generally useful to education, I fear I 
 should never end. But I think we ought to be getting 
 on beyond the question of authorities. I do not, however, 
 wish to go through all the virtues in detail ; I think it 
 will be sufficient to indicate method in the case of a few, 
 and so far as possible to point out which are the first to 
 develop. Progress will, to begin with, be slow, perhaps 
 imperceptible, and we must not be discouraged by many 
 falls ; our aim must be so to train as ever to keep in mind 
 that we have to develop a reasonable self-control, com- 
 bined with love for others, the springs on which all the 
 virtues move. ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
 all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
 strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as 
 thyself.' These two precepts sum in brief the whole duty 
 of man." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 139 
 
 " Yet, Mrs. Trelawney," said Mr. Reynolds, " it was 
 but a very short time since that you were arguing against 
 the teaching of religion." 
 
 ''I beg your pardon, Mr. Eeynolds," my wife replied 
 with some warmth, " but I was doing nothing of the kind. 
 I was only arguing against the attempt to force the 
 development of it prematurely. One often gains most by 
 going to work indirectly. A wise loss of time is infinite 
 gain." 
 
 " I am sorry if I misunderstood you," replied Reynolds, 
 and my wife resumed : — 
 
 " All our efforts to train in morality will be but vain if 
 we do not ourselves daily show that moral principles rule 
 us, even as we would have them rule our children. Here 
 is the chief reason why our moral training now is so defec- 
 tive. To take a simple instance, and a virtue which it is 
 necessary to begin to train early — the virtue of punctuality. 
 How many parents have I known who insist on their 
 children being punctual at all meals, yet themselves never 
 hesitate to be several minutes late when there is abso- 
 lutely no reason why they should not have come earlier. 
 They shelter themselves under that most dangerous of 
 snares, the fact that there is no one in a position to 
 reprove them." 
 
 " Yes," I put in, " and I am sorry to say it is a very 
 common failing with head masters, who would be most 
 angry if one of their assistants did the same thing." 
 
 "For my part, I consider such procedure not merely 
 foolish, but absolutely immoral. How can a mother who 
 behaves thus expect her child to understand the import- 
 ance of punctuality, or not to try to secure for himself 
 what he considers to be the privileges of his parents? 
 No. The first duty of every trainer is to submit to the 
 laws he lays down for the trained, save in those cases 
 where it is clear even to a child that a distinction can be. 
 drawn between what a man is allowed to do and a child. 
 But such cases are not many." 
 
 " I am very glad to hear you say that," put in Mrs. 
 Hindley ; " you know I hold truth- speaking to be not one| 
 of those cases." 
 
 My wife laughed, and merely saying, " I do not wish to 
 re-open old discussions," went on : — 
 
140 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " There are many other conditions which conduce to 
 easy development of a high moral tone without being 
 themselves actual points in the systematic training to 
 morality. They seem to me supports rather than parts of 
 morality. Such are the influences of clean and beautiful 
 surroundings, and of music. I am a very great believer 
 in the moral influence of art." 
 
 " There I certainly cannot agree with you," said Mrs. 
 Reynolds. '' It seems to me it is mere indulgence in the 
 pride of the eye." 
 
 " Do you mean to include music in your condemnation ? " 
 Dr. Hindley asked. 
 
 " No ; I was thinking of painting in especial. It 
 seems to me, even where not actually vicious, to be mere 
 self-indulgence ; if not immoral, to be completely non- 
 moral. I am a great believer in the high ethical value 
 of asceticism." 
 
 " But surely, Mrs. Reynolds," said the Doctor, " you 
 would not deny that fine architecture, for instance, has 
 an elevating effect — that it is inspiring to worship in a 
 grand cathedral rather than in an ordinary, it may be an 
 ugly, church ! " 
 
 " Some people, I know, find architecture a hindrance 
 to the free flow of religious feeling. Personally I am not 
 sure that I should object to it, though certainly I cannot 
 say that I have ever been conscious of having my re- 
 ligious emotions stirred by the sight of a grand cathe- 
 dral." 
 
 " Do you mean to say that you do not feel elevated 
 by the sight of a noble building ? " 
 
 " Pardon me. Doctor, I did not say that. What I said 
 was that I have not been conscious of having my religious 
 emotions stirred. I said nothing about being elevated." 
 
 " But surely they are much the same thing." 
 
 " Not to my thinking. I draw a strong line of distinc- 
 tion between being elevated and having my religious 
 feelings stirred." 
 
 "Ah, I have often heard that there are people who 
 draw that distinction ; but for my own part it seems 
 to me a distinction without a difference." 
 
 " It is clear. Doctor, that we must be very differently 
 constituted," went on Mrs. Reynolds. "To me religion 
 
MORAL EDUCATION I4I 
 
 is a thing quite apart from the exultation or feeling of 
 joy produced in the mind by a grand sight. I am aware 
 that many nowadays treat the two emotions as the same, 
 if indeed they do not try to make the latter entirely take 
 the place of the former. To me it would be as rational 
 to say that delight in the open air and the power to do 
 hard mental work are just the same thing, as to say that 
 elevated feelings and the emotions of religion are identical 
 or nearly so." 
 
 " Well, you would perhaps admit this much," the 
 Doctor urged, " that when the feelings are roused in this 
 way, one is more open to religious influences." 
 
 " No, I would not admit even that. Religious feelings 
 seem to me so absolutely unique that in most cases exalta- 
 tion of the other emotions prevents me fixing my mind on 
 heavenly things." 
 
 Here Mr. Reynolds interposed, saying : — 
 
 " I could not go so far as that, but I must confess I 
 have great sympathy with my wife's position in general, 
 that art and religion are things apart." 
 
 " Well," said my wife, " I did not expect so strong an 
 opposition. I thought I was laying down a proposition 
 which would meet with universal assent. But I find 
 I am mistaken." 
 
 " Very much so, my dear," I put in, " for you may add 
 me to the number of your opponents, as regards religion 
 at all events. With me art often gives the death-blow 
 to religion. I well remember the first time I heard a 
 choral service in a cathedral : — I had been brought up, as 
 you know, as a strict Evangelical : — the effect upon me of 
 the elaborate music and ritual was to make me boil over 
 with anger, which, do what I would, I could not master. 
 So far from having a religious effect the artistic surround- 
 ings had quite the reverse. I hope I should not be affected 
 in the same way now; but still it is necessary to re- 
 member that such temperaments do exist." 
 
 " Well, my dear, I am surprised. I know that you 
 are not fond of elaborate ritual, but I had no idea your 
 feelings had ever been so strong. However, we have 
 rather run away from my point, which was the effect 
 of artistic surroundings upon morality, not upon religion. 
 Oh, yes, Mrs. Reynolds, I know what you will say, that 
 
142 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 what applies to the one applies equally to the other ; but 
 I do not think that of necessity follows. I am not pre- 
 pared personally to admit without argument that religious 
 feelings are so far unique, so far distinct in character, 
 I should say, from moral ones, as you seem inclined 
 to maintain ; but I will admit that there is a difference, 
 and I can quite understand people who emphasize the 
 distinction asserting that while art may have a good 
 effect upon morality, it may have none at all, or a bad 
 one, upon religion. However, it is clear that this point 
 is one on which there is a vital divergence among us 
 likely to be overcome by no amount of argument — a type 
 of the divergence in the outside world. Hence in my 
 other remarks on art and morals, I must be understood 
 to be expressing my own personal opinion, not speaking 
 for us all. I am sorry that it is so; but I was quite 
 prepared to find that the whole of our subject — so little 
 worked out as yet — might well disclose great differences 
 of thought. I am only too glad to know that so far we 
 seem to be pretty well agreed, and must not complain 
 of one schism, even on a point so near to my heart. 
 
 " I was going to maintain, and for my own part 
 maintain still, that artistic surroundings have a really 
 direct effect in fostering good morality. Few people 
 surely would now deny that the sight of fine pictures, 
 statues or buildings elevates our feelings and raises us for 
 the time beyond our common selves, just as does a lovely 
 landscape or the wonderful glow of a rich sunset. Now 
 this feeling of elevation — purification I should prefer 
 to call it — puts the mind into such a state that it is 
 directly susceptible to the finer emotions, of which 
 assuredly the moral are the chief. Hence it seems to me 
 that if we habitually surround the child from the cradle 
 onwards with lovely sights and sounds, we are likely 
 to keep him in a more receptive state for our moral 
 lessons than if we leave him exposed, I will not say to 
 what is ugly, but to what is merely commonplace. The 
 effect seems to me precisely analogous to the effect which 
 the narration of heroic deeds, whether historical or ficti- 
 tious, and the recitation of stirring poetry and other 
 appeals from literature — an indispensable portion of all 
 moral training — exercise upon the heart, opening it, as 
 
MORAL EDUCATION I43 
 
 they do, to an appreciation of what is great or noble, and 
 suggesting, by natural working, imitation. The effects 
 of art may not be so directly related to practice, but the 
 general result seems to me undistinguishable. And 
 though the fact hardly bears upon the training of quite 
 young children, the same may be said of dramatic art." 
 
 " Ah ! that reminds me," I said, " of a well-known 
 saying of Aristotle, who, if I understand him rightly, 
 represents tragedy as a direct moral influence, purifying, 
 as he says, by means of pity and fear, the passions which 
 fall into the same classes as those two." 
 
 "It sounds rather a complicated remark. I have not 
 heard it before, I am ashamed to say, and must admit 
 I hardly understand it." 
 
 " Oh, well, you are no worse off than our friends the 
 critics then, for no one as yet seems to have thoroughly 
 comprehended it ; so you need not worry yourself on that 
 score. The remark only seemed to me to bear a general 
 resemblance to what you had been saying. But I think 
 you might proceed." 
 
 "I had just mentioned dramatic art. The last im- 
 portant, I may perhaps call it from our present point of 
 view the most important, branch of art remaining is 
 music, about the moral effect of which till a few minutes 
 ago I should have thought no one would have disputed. 
 We know that the ancient Greeks thought it one of the 
 most direct of all ethical agencies " 
 
 " Forgive me interrupting you, Mrs. Trelawney," said 
 Mr. Rejmolds ; " but has any one here ever heard an 
 attempt at a reproduction of Greek music ? " 
 
 No one seemed to have done so, and Reynolds pro- 
 ceeded : — 
 
 " Well, I have ; and I remember thinking when I was 
 listening to it that I could quite understand how it was 
 that the Greeks, and Plato most explicitly, attributed 
 to it so great a moral power. It is so very unlike ours 
 that we can form no opinion by merely inferring from 
 modern music. Greek music seems to have been much 
 simpler and rather monotonous, and, perhaps for that 
 reason, it appeals more directly to our moral feelings. 
 I am, unfortunately, not musical, and cannot lay out 
 the difference in musical terminology. Still, the fact 
 
144 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 remains that, to me at least, it seemed a standing proof 
 of the correct observation on which Plato based his 
 theories, difficult though a modern finds it at first to 
 accept all he says on this curious subject." 
 
 " I am glad to hear you say this, Mr. Reynolds," said 
 my wife, '' for it helps me in my present point. I should 
 not like to be asked to expound in detail the exact effect 
 of different kinds of music, but of its soothing and often 
 inspiring power no one even among the ordinary public 
 can have much doubt. We need only consider hymns and 
 marching music, to say nothing of national airs, to see 
 that some of the different kinds may excite emotion very 
 strongly." 
 
 " I do not call that the same as being moral in their 
 effects." 
 
 " Ah, Mrs. Reynolds, you are subtle in your objections. 
 It is a point which I should like to discuss later on, but 
 meanwhile, will you allow me to assume it for the purpose 
 of developing my position ? Here, if I may, I will just 
 quote one example as an absolute proof of the moral 
 influence which music, I do not say always, but at all 
 events often, exerts upon the hearers. Do you know the 
 overture of Tannhauser? You do not, Mrs. Rejmolds? 
 Well, you have a pleasure in store. But what I was 
 going to say was this, that when I first heard that over- 
 ture after I knew the opera, the whole of it seemed to me 
 a representation of a moral struggle — a most terrible 
 moral struggle — between the powers of evil and the 
 powers of purity and goodness ; and so vivid was the 
 reality of it to me — I could follow every movement through 
 having already heard the opera as a whole — that I was 
 quite exhausted with the protracted agony of the conflict ; 
 I began almost to gasp for breath, and was within an ace 
 of falling from my seat. I have heard the overture more 
 than once since, and it always affects me in the same way, 
 though not quite to the same extent, for it has not always 
 been Richter conducting. I look upon the intensity of 
 my emotions then as a proof of the moral nature of music, 
 for the moral feeling was present to my consciousness 
 throughout, and it was much more that than the mere 
 music which exhausted me so completely." 
 
 " You must be unusually sensitive," said the Doctor ; 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 145 
 
 while Mrs. Hindley, who was very musical, and who had, 
 while my wife was speaking, been half nodding to herself 
 with a pleased look upon her face, now said : — 
 
 " I am delighted to hear what you say, Mrs. Trelawney. 
 I always quote the overture to Tannhauser as my crucial 
 test of the power of music to represent and appeal to the 
 moral emotions. It is grand beyond measure, grand 
 because full of the awful struggle between right and 
 wrong." 
 
 " Now I think it is of the first importance," my wife 
 resumed, '' to apply music to the moral purification of the 
 young. After all music is a language invented to express 
 emotions beyond the ordinary range of speech, and who, 
 when his heart is stirred by moral beauty, does not 
 constantly feel the need of such a mode of expression ? 
 And just as music can express these feelings, so it can 
 stir them into activity; and knowing as we do the 
 delight which it is to most young children, I say that 
 it is our duty never to neglect the chance of rousing 
 or stirring emotions by music, or of using it to bring the 
 child into a proper frame of mind when we are proposing 
 to appeal to his moral nature. 
 
 " There are still one or two points I should like to touch 
 upon, and you must forgive me if my remarks are rather 
 disjointed. First, I would utter a warning against a very 
 common fault — showing children off. I am convinced 
 that serious moral harm often results from this practice. 
 And what is the origin of it? Merely a foolish pride 
 in ourselves. It leads to the development of vanity and 
 conceit with no counterbalancing gain. The only cases 
 in which I can conceive it to be at all justifiable are when 
 a child is unduly diffident — cases which I think are not 
 very common. And often the admiration expressed is 
 directed to quite wrong objects, especially smart remarks 
 which the child has not meant to be smart at all, so that 
 he cannot understand our admiration or amusement. 
 Laughing at things said in this way is apt to make a 
 child self-conscious and unnatural, and to lead it to talk 
 merely for impression's sake without any regard to truth 
 or the exigencies of the conversation. Then again there 
 is the very grievous mistake of praising a child in public. 
 Praise is one of the most valuable weapons which a trainer 
 
 L 
 
146 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 possesses at home or at school ; but it should only be 
 wielded in public under the most exceptional circumstances. 
 And how often at home is the praise administered to 
 unworthy things — good looks, cleverness, beautiful clothes 
 — for which the child can claim no credit at all. Here it 
 is in especial that servants are dangerous. I never let 
 my children express any admiration for their own or other 
 people's dress, contenting myself with getting them to 
 feel that duty requires them to be neat and tidy, but that 
 great display is no matter for pride. And here I may 
 remark in passing that such neatness and tidiness is a 
 great help to a child morally. It is the only justification 
 that I can see for the rather snobbish attitude of many 
 of our public schools, which insist upon boys wearing 
 particular coats and hats ; were it not for my sense of 
 this possibility of moral gain, I should condemn the 
 practice without reserve. As it is, I think it is overdone ; 
 the appeal to a gentleman's appearance is snobbish in 
 essence, and often leads a child to think that any manual 
 work which is apt to stain the fingers or soil the clothes 
 is of necessity degrading." 
 
 " I must say I rather differ from you there," said Mr. 
 Reynolds. '' I think the practice is of very great value." 
 
 " That I admit, if carried out in the right spirit ; but 
 with many of our masters I fear it springs simply from a 
 desire to separate their charges from those whom we with 
 such terrible arrogance call, if you please, the lower 
 
 " Thank you for that remark," said Mrs. Hindley. 
 " Our attitude on that question is beneath contempt." 
 
 " It is curious," I said, " how vital such prejudices are. 
 It seems to me the chief defect of the moral thinkers, not 
 excepting even the greatest, among the Greeks, that they 
 condemned all trade and manual labour as unworthy 
 of a free man. And yet many historians hold up the 
 Greeks to us as models of true democracy! Now true 
 democracy must be based upon an admiration of worth 
 wherever found, and the man who does his work nobly, 
 even if it be but scavenging the streets, deserves far 
 more honour and has a far nobler character than the man 
 who folds his hands in idleness and says : * I am a gentle- 
 man — I am entitled to do nothing.' " 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 47 
 
 "Yes," said Dr. Hindley, '4t is surely one of the 
 greatest advances we modems have made, that we have 
 come to recognise the nobility of work per se, of all work, 
 no matter how unpleasant its surroundings. We do not 
 always act up to our nobler feelings, especially in the 
 matter of trade ; but that all work deserves to be honoured 
 it should be one of the primary objects of the educator to 
 impress : the young should be taught that to despise 
 another because his work is more unpleasant than their 
 own is a mark of uncharitableness — of the meanest of 
 vices. In fact I would go so far as to say, the more 
 degrading the work, the more should be the honour." 
 
 "I do not think," my wife continued, " that it is possible 
 to develop this feeling better than by making children 
 work themselves. You know manual work is at this 
 moment causing great revolutions in the educational 
 world. Sloyd — to take one single instance — is a typical 
 agent of great power, not merely in destroying a view of 
 labour so degrading and unchristian as that you have 
 described, but also in directly expounding the value of 
 many a virtue, — neatness, precision, cleanness, persever- 
 ance, — which is in itself of vital importance and yet is 
 touched so effectively by no other training. Rousseau 
 and Pestalozzi never tire of preaching the need of doing 
 things for oneself; the latter even made it a cardinal 
 principle. From him we can learn that manual labour 
 is not merely not in antagonism to, but that it furthers, 
 and that distinctly, both intellectual and moral advance ; 
 and it is, to my thinking, in this direction that we should 
 look for the next great advance in education. 
 
 " Let me now turn to another point, where moral 
 education rests mainly with the home — I refer to the 
 proper use of money. My own children are young as yet, 
 so that I have not experienced the full difficulty; but 
 I know one wealthy lady, whose children are now grown, 
 who once said to me that in bringing up her children her 
 greatest difficulty had been to teach them how to use 
 money aright." 
 
 " I too have found the same thing," said Mrs. Reynolds ; 
 " even still I am at sea how best to treat the question." 
 
 '' There are such great diversities of disposition," said 
 Mrs. Hindley ; "I do not think it possible to lay down 
 
14^ MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 one rule. A child tending to meanness requires different 
 treatment from one who is extravagant, and these diver- 
 gencies you find in even the same family, though all the 
 members, so far as one can see, have had practically the 
 Same bringing-up." 
 
 " Yes," said my wife, " that increases the difl&culty ; 
 and here again, I think, individual handling is more effec- 
 tive than general treatment. My husband and I have 
 adopted the principle of making our children a certain 
 allowance, even when they are but five or six years 
 old ; of making them keep accounts " 
 
 " How on earth do you manage that? " interrupted the 
 Doctor. 
 
 " Oh, by getting them a small account-book, making 
 them tell us what they have spent, and entering it before 
 them so that they can see. We then balance accounts in 
 correct style, and so get the children into methodical 
 habits from a very tender age. Of course it is but a little 
 at first, and takes time even to reach the formidable sum 
 of one shilling." 
 
 At this there was a laugh, and my wife went on : — 
 
 " Then we have a money-box, and encourage the little 
 ones to put something by for use at emergencies, birth- 
 days, holidays, treats and the like, and above all to spend 
 partly in charity, especially at the charitable season — 
 Christmas ; but giving to beggars in the street we will 
 not allow. Children can soon be brought to understand 
 that such people are mostly impostors, though at first, 
 from their keen sense of pity, they are inclined to give all 
 they have. But we select some philanthropic society, the 
 objects of which the children can understand, and when 
 we send our own contributions, ask for help from them. 
 But it is important that the objects should appeal to their 
 sympathies ; children's hospitals are a case in point, and 
 the children's country holiday fund. Further, from time 
 to time we take them, where possible, to see the places to 
 which they have sent some contribution, and, giving notice 
 a good time beforehand, encourage them to buy some little 
 gift, flowers, fruit or toys, to leave behind them when 
 they go. In this way they see how much may be done 
 by money, and I really think it is a valuable lesson in the 
 best means of dispensing charity. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 49 
 
 " As the children begin to get older we make them pay 
 out of an increased allowance for some portions of their 
 personal expenses, small articles of dress perhaps, or, it 
 may be, short railway journeys or the like. It teaches 
 them economy and the care of their possessions. More- 
 over they have to make good any damage, unless it is so 
 serious as to be quite beyond their reach." 
 
 " Aren't you rather likely to make them worry too 
 much ? " asked Mrs. Hindley. 
 
 " I admit there is a danger ; but we try to get over it by 
 abstaining for a time from making suggestions for rather 
 out-of-the-way objects, or for any charitable expenditure. 
 If the danger becomes pressing, we increase the allowance 
 at times, though never on request ; at times we make 
 presents of such things as the children may otherwise 
 have to buy for themselves. Of course we are careful that 
 our reasons are not known — the act seems quite spon- 
 taneous. And, further, we always beg our friends on no 
 account to give money without telling as first ; to a small 
 present occasionally we do not object, but a large sum we 
 do our utmost to prevent. The practice develops as the 
 years go on, and so far I have found it most valuable and 
 effective. It is a practice which, I think, in the matter 
 of pocket-money, schools might follow with advantage." 
 
 "Don't you find, Mrs. Trelawney," Mr. Reynolds asked, 
 " that the children are reluctant to let you know what it 
 is they have spent their money on ? I sometimes feel that 
 in trifles of this kind children like to have little secrets." 
 
 " I must enter a protest against the word trifles ; but 
 for the main point it seems to me a question of confidence. 
 I have not yet found that any one of my children has 
 refrained from spending when he wished, because he knew 
 the matter at last would be sure to come under my super- 
 vision. But one rule I observe most punctually : when 
 the money is spent I never criticise, unless the object is 
 clearly bad. Extravagance practically corrects itself. 
 Further, when the child is about eight or nine we take 
 another step — we open a savings-bank account for the 
 youngster. We do not, however, as some parents do, pro- 
 mise to add in due proportion ; for our aim is not to 
 encourage saving, but rather to show that, when properly 
 handled, money can serve many different purposes. 
 
150 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 Lessons in thrift should be taken later, roughly about 
 the school age ; in many cases indeed, if the children are 
 well managed, they ought to be found quite superfluous, 
 since after all life will of itself, save in the most excep- 
 tional cases, soon teach the requisite lessons. Ah, Doctor, 
 I know what you would say, and I grant that it is these 
 exceptional cases that perhaps require the training most ; 
 but I venture to think that on our system, before extrava- 
 gance and want of thought had had the time to take deep 
 root, the lesson would be already learnt. But to allow 
 children to handle money freely without giving guidance 
 or suggesting objects on which to spend it, makes me 
 think of the reply the Irishman gave to the man who, on 
 tumbling into the water, exclaimed piteously that he could 
 not swim — 'Then ye'll have a mighty iligant chance of 
 learning now ! ' The allowance ought to be sufficient to 
 give a little indulgence, and yet to leave enough for 
 benevolent purposes." 
 
 " All I should be afraid of," said the Doctor, " is that 
 the cares of this world would enter too early into the little 
 soul. Such a result could not be desirable." 
 
 " I can only say I have not found it. But the possi- 
 bility I do admit ; yet it seems to me not hard to over- 
 come. And, after all, it is a choice of evils, and I would 
 rather face the risk than allow my children to grow to 
 manhood in dangerous ignorance alike of the value and of 
 the management of money, and without having received 
 any practical lessons in the true charitable disposition of 
 it." 
 
 "What do you think," Mr. Reynolds asked, "of 
 Rousseau's theory that we ought to teach children to 
 appreciate charity by being ready to give ourselves, but 
 carefully excluding them from all participation in a matter 
 which should be kept for full-grown men ? In this way 
 he says a child will treat charity as a privilege to be 
 enjoyed in his maturer years ; he will, as he grows older, 
 become more and more anxious to assert his right to a 
 proper shai'e — his appetite, in short, will be whetted by 
 refusal, and form at last the foundation of a life-long 
 habit." 
 
 " Oh, that I regard as an extravagant paradox, though 
 I admit I have sometimes been taken by it myself. It is, 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 151 
 
 of course, a theory which might equally be maintained in 
 respect to a large portion of moral education. But still, 
 on the whole, it seems merely a paradox. True that desire 
 is often whetted by refusal, but against that we have to 
 set the opposite fact that experience of a pleasure makes 
 one desire it again — a point especially to be weighed in 
 connection with charity. 
 
 " I should like to lay down one general maxim which is 
 of cardinal importance, not merely in dealing with children 
 at home but throughout all education^eave them as 
 large an amount of liberty as you can. Trust them and 
 they can be trusted. Command little, and forbid not at 
 all. Children are often overburdened with injunctions, on 
 points, too, which are of no practical value in their effect 
 on moral development. Remove, as far as possible, all 
 means of doing harm, and then leave them to themselves. 
 Herbert Spencer's theory of natural punishments I strongly 
 support, extreme though the point is to which he pushes 
 it. True and healthy the principle seems to me in the 
 main, and its general application would work a much- 
 needed reform, at home and school alike. Though I have 
 just expressed dissent from Rousseau's doctrine, yet the 
 thought which I imagine underlay his injunction repre- 
 sents a real fact ; it is often the mere knowledge that an 
 act is forbidden that makes a child, and, alas ! not only a 
 child, long to do it. If the law were not there, there 
 would often be no desire." 
 
 " That," said Mr. Reynolds, " is like St. Paul's well- 
 known sayings : ' Without the law sin was dead,' ' by the 
 law is the knowledge of sin,' and ' the strength of sin is 
 the law.' " 
 
 " Is that his meaning ? The facts seem to me just as 
 represented, and we have to bear them constantly in mind 
 in all our dealings with children. But if we should have 
 to forbid at all, there is one point made by Rousseau I 
 should like to emphasize : it is of no use to argue that a 
 certain act is not for the child's own good. IJnless the 
 harm is such as will come directly, and such as the child's 
 mind will then and there appreciate, we are simply 
 appealing to a vague abstraction which never reaches 
 his feelings. Rather than use that argument I would 
 say : ' Do not do it, because I should not like it ; ' or would 
 
152 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 leave the command absolute, without interpretation. And 
 again I would say, be very chary about appealing to the 
 sense of shame. I do not, of course, mean that you may 
 never point out how a feeling of shame ought to arise, but 
 what I mean is that the deliberate exposure of a child to 
 scorn because of some fault committed is a direct and 
 deadly wrong. Shame is a very double-edged weapon, 
 tending to harden as much as to cure." 
 
 " Have you read," asked Mrs. Hindley, " the wonderful 
 account which Tolstoi gives of his own village school, and 
 the remarks he there makes upon the working of shame ? " 
 
 " No ; I am sorry to say I have never even heard of it." 
 
 " Well, let me recommend it. He takes just the line 
 that you do. Indeed I would advise any one who is 
 interested in education to study the whole work; it is 
 quite revolutionary. I know it is much scoffed at by 
 practical schoolmasters, but such a fate is not uncommon 
 with great reformers. To me it seems more like Pesta- 
 lozzi's mode of action, if I may trust mere reports of that 
 man's work, than anything else that I have ever heard of." 
 
 " You have whetted my appetite, Mrs. Hindley," said 
 my wife. " I shall certainly see what he has to say. 
 
 " Another point I should like to emphasize — it would 
 perhaps have better come in connection with art — is the 
 importance of the study of nature. Froebel, as no doubt 
 you know, made this a cardinal point in his system ; it 
 should certainly be adopted in all homes. In towns there 
 are, no doubt, difficulties in the way ; but they can often be 
 got over by pictures and models, and by excursions into 
 the country. The value I am now urging is not the in- 
 tellectual but the moral. Can the beauty of nature fail to 
 work a softening effect upon any child, while the wonder- 
 ful complexity and yet clear tendency of all arrangements 
 to one great end, will this not rouse — we may be sure it 
 will — his loving and admiring wonder and reverence ? So 
 we shall play upon two of the great chords of ethical 
 sentiment, for, if I may rest on a poet's authority, — 
 
 ' We live by admiration, hope, and love.' 
 Such intercourse with nature is also a ready way of teach- 
 ing the child that everything is individual, and that it is 
 his duty under all circumstances never to destroy that 
 individuality. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 153 
 
 " There is one habit on which Dr. Abbott dwells strongly 
 in his suggestive little book, Hints on Home Teaching^ — 
 the habit of attention. So far does he go as even to say 
 that of all habits it is both intellectually and morally the 
 most valuable." 
 
 " That surely is exaggerated," said Mrs. Hindley. 
 
 " I think so ; but you should read his own words on the 
 matter. Of its very great importance under both these 
 aspects I have no doubt whatever ; but I referred in 
 especial to that view just now in order to bring into high 
 relief one excellent point he makes — the intensity of moral 
 harm done to quite a young infant when friends will 
 persist in diverting its attention, for no good reason at 
 all, to some newly-presented object or plaything. Atten- 
 tion and will are too closely allied to allow us to play with 
 the former with impunity. And yet Dr. Abbott's charges, 
 I fear, come home not merely to the generality of nurses 
 and relatives, but even to the parents themselves. Deeply 
 engrossed in the study of one object, why should a child 
 be diverted to another ? Here, again, if we follow Dame 
 Nature's guidance we shall not go far wrong. Let the 
 child itself show when its interest is exhausted. 
 
 " I do not know that I have more to say, except to add 
 that throughout life moral training should find its centre 
 always in the home. Whatever work the school may do, 
 it can only be subsidiary and supplementary to this. 
 Some points, I grant, in particular those relating to our 
 duties towards the State, the school can attack with more 
 effect than can the home, above all when our aim is to stir 
 enthusiasm, for which numbers are a great help ; but, 
 whatever the school may try to do, painful experience in 
 teaching days has shown me that if home-influence runs 
 counter, but little result will be produced." 
 
 There was a few moments' pause, when Mr. Reynolds 
 said that there was one point he would like to raise, which 
 it seemed to him had been quite overlooked, a point sug- 
 gested by the last remarks — the effect, that is, of numbers. 
 "Mrs. Trelawney," he went on, "has, it seems to me, 
 fallen into the trap which has caught so many of our 
 great authorities ; she seems to have taken a solitary child 
 instead of treating of children in groups. I know her 
 procedure is not singular, but the method leads to defec- 
 
154 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 tive results. Locke's treatise and Rousseau's seem to 
 me especially to suffer in this way: they assume arbi- 
 trary or rare, if not impossible conditions, and then expect 
 the result to apply to all mankind. Now, I grant that 
 this mode of reasoning is natural, — it makes the argu- 
 ment so much easier, — still the defect seems to me radical. 
 Man has been defined as a social animal, and surely it is 
 important to treat him first of all from the point of view 
 of this leading characteristic. And the younger the chil- 
 dren the more marked is their sociality. Yet, Mrs. 
 Trelawney, here you are laying down a scheme of moral 
 training in the home, yet leaving on one side, as it seems 
 to me, this prominent factor in a child's composition ! " 
 
 " A very good and effective criticism, Mr. Reynolds," 
 said Mrs. Hindley. "I shall be curious to hear what 
 Mrs. Trelawney has to say." 
 
 We all looked at my wife with some curiosity, but 
 she, after a moment's thought, said quite unconcernedly : — 
 
 " I admit I exposed myself in some way to the attack, 
 but rather, I hope, from carelessness of expression than 
 from a want of perception of the fact. In the first place, 
 I think it is not quite true that I overlooked, even in the 
 main, the social factor in the child's composition. I re- 
 ferred more than once to regard for others and, as the 
 mainspring of action, dwelt prominently upon love. 
 Surely this is to admit the social element." 
 
 " It is not the same thing," said Mr. Reynolds. " My 
 thought was rather of the effect upon training of dealing 
 with several children together, their influence upon each 
 other, and the modifications of teaching which will result 
 from association. Those questions I do not think you 
 touched." 
 
 " That is true ; but how, in the abstract, is it possible 
 to treat them adequately at all ? The variations will be 
 endless, as endless as the characters, and it would be a 
 hopeless task to enumerate the resulting modifications. I 
 would only say this, that I do not think either the method 
 of treatment or the subjects treated will differ in any 
 material way, whether we deal with a child individually 
 or with several children together. As in training of 
 intellect, so with morals, the question turns largely on 
 economy of labour. It is true the mixture of children 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 155 
 
 will lead to peculiar difficulties and to extra work on the 
 trainer's part, but it will also lead to compensating gains. 
 The difficulties will be twofold: one, the difficulty of 
 adjusting the teaching and practice so nicely to every 
 one's peculiar disposition ; the other and more serious, the 
 difficulty which arises from possible bad influence exerted 
 by one child over another. But to balance the latter risk 
 there is a possible gain — we may light upon a child who 
 is a distinct help, an elevating influence upon all his 
 mates. And in any case to handle the subject thus in 
 public will certainly produce a development of interest 
 with, probably, discussion among the children themselves. 
 But apart from these points I do not see that there is 
 much else to be said ; the actual appreciation of the con- 
 sequent difficulties, and the proper way to meet them, 
 must be left to the judgment of individual teachers. I 
 would only say that if there is one child whose influence 
 is distinctly and permanently bad, it will be wise to 
 separate him from the rest and try a special course of 
 treatment. But such a case is more likely to occur at 
 the school stage of life, say from seven or eight onwards, 
 than in that earlier period, infancy I may call it, which 
 we are now especially considering. But great difference 
 of method, or perhaps even of result, between individual 
 treatment and corporate at this stage, there will, I think, 
 be practically none." 
 
 "But, Mrs. Trelawney," said Mrs. Hindley again, 
 " there is still one case you have passed over where the 
 sociality of the child shows itself very strongly and where 
 potent causes work to modify our efforts — the influence of 
 companions out of actual instruction hours and especially 
 the influence of children's games." 
 
 " Ah, now I do plead guilty to a very grave omission ; 
 but at the same time the question you have so suddenly 
 sprung upon us is one of extreme difficulty. I do not so 
 much mean the limited one of games as the other and 
 broader branch, which is practically nothing but the wide 
 question, a question that to me seems well-nigh unanswer- 
 able, of the advantages and disadvantages of home and 
 school respectively. Whatever I may say on this vital 
 question, I should put forward only as tentative ; but on 
 the question of games I do not suppose we are likely to 
 differ very much." 
 
156 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " You will admit, no doubt, their value as training in 
 self-denial and self-control ? " 
 
 " Nay, I should go a great deal further and say that, 
 especially with the very young, I have found no means 
 equally easy for reaching their dispositions. Not merely 
 are the qualities you have mentioned well brought out, 
 but perseverance is necessary, co-ordination of means to 
 attain, it may be, a distant end, the feeling of delight in 
 not merely one's own but also others' activity, the develop- 
 ment of a spirit of cheerfulness — in itself one of the most 
 valuable of influences that can forward the development of 
 a healthy morality — and beyond perhaps everything else, 
 the appreciation of the efforts of others, especially when 
 the elders know well how to join, and gratitude brought 
 home to the children's hearts in the most direct way. I 
 am dwelling of course solely upon the moral advantages ; 
 of the intellectual it is not my place now to treat. And it 
 is here that I find the Kindergarten system to be of such 
 immense value, even with allowance made for the occasion- 
 ally rather unnatural handling of children's games, the 
 attempt to draw lessons from them too directly and the 
 removal from the children of all initiative. But these 
 defects, where they occur, are but a slight set-off against 
 the cardinal merit of the system. The stimulus imparted 
 in all ways by association with those of like age is a boon 
 that cannot be over-estimated ; all that is needful is to 
 watch the children to prevent indulgence in evil feelings, 
 of which games are often provocative. But it is pre- 
 cisely games which often give the trainer his best oppor- 
 tunities of experimentation and of winning an insight 
 into children's characters ; for their energies are then 
 keen-set, and under the stimulus of a desire to gain a 
 given end they will probably give free play to their 
 strongest inclinations. Of rivalry I do not propose to say 
 anything, for it is a weapon of very keen double-edge, too 
 dangerous, in fact, in most cases to employ." 
 
 "I am afraid, then," said Dr. Hindley, " you cannot 
 much approve of the system in vogue at most of our 
 schools, where the main stimulus seems to be drawn from 
 the desire to win either prizes or marks." 
 
 " No ; that method, I think, is morally bad, and does not 
 produce half the result supposed. But girls' schools are 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 57 
 
 freer from the iniquity than boys' ; you had better ask 
 my husband what his opinion is." 
 
 " It is one of the points on which I feel most strongly," 
 I said. " I was keeping it in reserve till we reached the 
 general consideration of school morality; but as it has 
 turned up now, we may as well say what we have to say. 
 I have abolished marks in my own school, save as a very 
 passing record ; nor do I find any diminution in interest. 
 The boys work quite as well without them, and their 
 absence involves one great advantage — poor ability is not 
 discouraged. Jealousy, moreover, meets with no en- 
 couragement ; each boy is judged, not with reference to 
 other boys, but with reference to himself, and allowance is 
 made for natural powers. Hence, too, there is no food on 
 which to batten the self-conceit which cleverness so often 
 shows, albeit cleverness is no merit of one's own." 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Reynolds, " I can understand those 
 advantages ; but I think the evils you speak of are com- 
 paratively rare. Surely it is a good training for a boy to 
 learn not to let his feelings of jealousy master him because 
 he has been beaten by another boy, and the same with 
 cleverness and self-conceit." 
 
 " There again it is the question between the avoidance 
 of temptation and the exposure to it in the fervent hope 
 that the tempted will succeed in winning the victory. 
 No, it is surely better to avoid the temptation altogether." 
 
 " But don't you think," went on Mr. Re3molds, '' that a 
 little rivalry is good ? " 
 
 "If we can be sure of not stirring evil feelings, yes ; 
 but can we be sure ? In any case, the chief aim in foster- 
 ing such rivalry is to furnish a stimulus ; now I say that 
 in any proper school such a stimulus ought to be un- 
 necessary. If the children do not do their work from love 
 of it or from a sense of duty, there is something radically 
 wrong, and the wrongest thing of all is to have recourse 
 to an anti-social feeling by way of stimulus. Duty should 
 be done for duty's sake and not for the sake of re- 
 ward." 
 
 "Bravo, Mr. Trelawney ! " said Mrs. Hindley; "I am 
 glad to hear you speak so strongly on the subject. I quite 
 hold with you and your wife that rivalry is too danger- 
 ous a weapon to be used systematically in the education 
 
158 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 of the young. Of one thing we may be quite sure, that 
 the exigencies of after-life will develop the anti-social 
 feelings quite strongly enough without our fostering them 
 in cases where they can have so dangerous an influence. 
 How often do we find a spiritless person who has no desire 
 at all to surpass his neighbours ? And if we do, may he 
 not be all the better for it ? " 
 
 '' But, Mrs. Hindley, there is such a thing as trying to 
 excel in good ; surely you would not condemn that ? " 
 
 " Now, Mr. Rejmolds, let us be quite candid. Can you 
 tell me of any case that you know where ambition or 
 rivalry is limited to that ? " 
 
 Reynolds laughed and confessed that he could not, and 
 Mrs. Hindley went on with some vehemence : — 
 
 "Then you must forgive me if I use a strong word 
 about such an argument when I say that it is the merest 
 cant. Now to discuss morals adequately we must first of 
 all rid our minds of cant. Your argument, Mr. Reynolds, 
 was but a logical subtlety without practical reality, and, 
 pardon me if I say, unworthy of you. But I hope and 
 believe that you only used it from a dialectical necessity. 
 I repeat, then, that rivalry is usually, if not always, a 
 rivalry in selfishness, and as such to be crushed with a 
 heel of iron." 
 
 When Mrs. Hindley had laid down the law in this 
 emphatic way, none of us felt bold enough to attempt to 
 answer her. I merely thanked her for coming so valiantly 
 to my assistance, and asked my wife to resume her argu- 
 ment where she left oiF. 
 
 " Let me see, where was that ? " she replied. " Oh, I 
 remember. Just before I introduced that unfortunate 
 word rivalry. I had been running through the moral 
 advantages of games. I do not think it is necessary for 
 me to say any more, as the point is very clear, and I 
 willingly admit that children in general intercourse and 
 in games in particular develop each others' morals, though, 
 perhaps, in a very haphazard way, just as they develop 
 each others' intellects and physical powers in a way that 
 is more effective, at least within certain limits, than our 
 own efforts at more systematic training. Hence I feel 
 that I was guilty of a really unpardonable oversight in 
 not touching on the question at first." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 59 
 
 Here my wife stopped and looked as if she had nothing 
 more to say, whereupon the Doctor said : — 
 
 "But, Mrs. Trelawney, the rest of your work, if you 
 please. You must be aware that you postponed a most 
 important discussion, and yet you now look as if you 
 thought you had done the whole of your duty. Come, we 
 cannot let you off." 
 
 My wife laughed and replied : — 
 
 " Well, I really did hope you had forgotten the other 
 point. I was most anxious to escape it, as I feel I am 
 utterly incapable of dealing with it. Do let us leave it 
 alone and pass on to something else." 
 
 " Mrs. Trelawney ! " exclaimed Mrs. Hindley with a 
 look of horror, lifting up her hands in well-feigned 
 surprise ; " can it be you who have made that remark ? 
 Here we are discussing the principles of morality as they 
 are to be enforced upon children, and when you come to a 
 point of vital importance you actually show yourself so 
 utterly deficient in a primary sense of duty, despite the 
 admirable lecture you have just been giving us, as to pro- 
 pose running away ! Fie, fie ! I should never have ex- 
 pected it. What will your husband say ? " 
 
 " Oh, I say it is the wisest thing," was my reply ; at 
 which the whole company started in horror, save only my 
 wife, who said, laughing : — 
 
 " There, Mrs. Hindley, you see I have a good champion. 
 Now I am no longer ashamed of my cowardice. But sup- 
 pose you tackle the question, as you seem to consider it so 
 necessary ; pray, which do you consider preferable, to bring 
 up a child at home or to send him to school ? " 
 
 " Oh, I have no hesitation — send him to school." 
 
 " And her also ? " 
 
 "And her also." 
 
 "On what ground?" 
 
 " On the ground of wider experience and the rubbing 
 off of corners. ' Home-keeping youths have ever homely 
 wits.' " 
 
 " But we are considering morals, not wits, at present." 
 
 " It makes little difference. Morals will be improved as 
 well as wits." 
 
 "Always?" 
 
 " Not always perhaps, but generally." 
 
l6o MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " And what about the other cases ? Would you 
 deliberately expose them to harm ? " 
 
 "I do not think the harm outweighs the good to the 
 generality. A child of exceptionally weak will I would 
 keep at home." 
 
 "But what special advantage do you consider school 
 confers that cannot be had at home ? " 
 
 " It teaches self-reliance and consideration for others." 
 
 " But surely that can be taught at home if there are 
 more children than one and if the parents go the right 
 way to work." 
 
 " If, if. But there is another point. At school there is 
 more certainty of regular discipline without regard to 
 favour." 
 
 " That is again a question of an if. If the parents are 
 suited for their work, home will be as good as school, 
 besides being more under the influence of love ; and you 
 remember we are supposing that our conditions are ideal, 
 in which case parents will be well fitted for their work." 
 
 " But we are also supposing that schools will be ideal, 
 and on that supposition love will reign supreme. So that 
 point balances the other." 
 
 " It seems to me," I said, " you ladies are chopping logic 
 to no purpose." 
 
 " Thank you," put in Mrs. Hindley — a remark I dis- 
 regarded. 
 
 " If the conditions are ideal both courses will be perfect, 
 and there is nothing more to be said. It would surely be 
 more correct to say, not that the conditions are ideal, but 
 that we are aiming at an ideal training. However, I should 
 like to put Mrs. Hindley one question. Do you mean by 
 school a day-school or a boarding-school ? " 
 
 " Oh, a day-school certainly." 
 
 "Then in that case," said my wife, " I should not dis- 
 agree. The moral dangers connected with a day-school 
 ought to be easily counteracted by the home ; the point I 
 really dreaded and to which I hoped to force you at last, 
 was the entire loss of women's influence. It did not seem 
 to me that that would be outweighed by the gain from 
 companions of all sorts and kinds." 
 
 "Ah, but," said Mrs. Hindley, "you remember we 
 agreed earlier on mixed schools and mixed teachers." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION l6l 
 
 " True ; I am afraid I was arguing from modern con- 
 ditions. But now that we are agreed that it is desirable 
 to get a variety of companions for the young and yet to 
 retain them under the sheltering influence of home, I 
 would only say that there is something to be said for the 
 position which, for instance. Canon Isaac Taylor takes up, 
 that a large class formed at home, but only of such 
 numbers as would be within the reach of home discipline 
 and admit of similar supervision, would adequately meet 
 the case. I am not myself quite convinced of the wisdom 
 of the solution, but I think it would be worth considera- 
 tion." 
 
 " Yes, possibly," replied Mrs. Hindley, " though it can 
 hardly differ much from a small school. But as we have 
 escaped the terrible battle which seemed imminent owing 
 to an agreement in essentials, it hardly seems worth while 
 for us to go into that question. I move that we pass on. 
 Now, ladies and gentlemen, speak up if you please. Has 
 any one anything further to say on the question of home 
 education as laid before ua by Mrs. Trelawney before we 
 dismiss this branch of our subject and tackle another ? If 
 lie has, let him speak now." 
 
 M 
 
VI 
 
 MRS. HINDLEY paused and looked round us all, when 
 Mrs. Reynolds said quietly : — 
 
 " I was waiting and waiting all the time Mrs. Trelawney 
 w^as talking to hear what she had to say on a very im- 
 portant question — the question of punishment. But she 
 said just nothing at all." 
 
 " No," said my wife, " there is nothing to say." 
 
 " Mrs. Trelawney ! what do you mean ? " said Mrs. 
 Rejmolds with unfeigned surprise. 
 
 " I mean that there is, or should be, no such thing as 
 punishment." 
 
 At this Mrs. Reynolds visibly started, and we all 
 looked surprised, which my wife noticing went on : — 
 
 ''Under ideal circumstances no punishment would be 
 necessary, and even now in a well-regulated home it seems 
 to me to be easy to dispense with it — punishment, that is, 
 in the strict sense of the word. In education, I take it, 
 the only aim of punishment can be reformation, and we 
 have all this time been trying to discover such a means of 
 moral education as shall dispense with the necessity of 
 reformation altogether. It strikes me as a curious request 
 to make, that after drawing up such an elaborate scheme 
 we should revert, as it were, to weaker conditions and 
 confess the breakdown of our machinery by considering 
 punishment as if it were the driving wheel at length." 
 
 "lam afraid, my dear," I said, "even your favourite 
 Pestalozzi would not bear you out there. He admits the 
 necessity of punishment at times, even of corporal punish- 
 ment." 
 
 " But you forget he had not the management of children 
 from their birth. I am now regarding the case of children 
 under our proposed regime from the moment of their birth. 
 
 1C3 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 63 
 
 You know I believe strongly in Herbert Spencer's doctrine 
 of natural punishments." 
 
 " Then you do believe in punishments after all," said 
 Mrs. Keynolds. 
 
 "Ah, but those punishments are not what is usually 
 meant by the term. Hence it was that I said there is no 
 such thing in my scheme. Natural punishments are the 
 natural results of actions produced by the laws of nature 
 working without interference from us." 
 
 " Would you not then allow us to express our dis- 
 pleasure when children do wrong? " 
 
 " Most certainly. To a child well brought up that is 
 at once the most natural and the most dreaded of the 
 results of evil-doing. Have you not read Herbert Spencer's 
 book ? Then I would advise you to do so ; the whole point 
 is put so lucidly and so convincingly that I can conceive 
 no thinking person, at least, if he felt he had the strength 
 to carry it through, not taking it as his cardinal principle 
 in the management of children." 
 
 " Then I'm afraid, Mrs. Trelawney, I am not a thinking 
 person," said Dr. Hindley. 
 
 " Well, Doctor, I never accused you of being so. But 
 surely you do not mean to say you disagree." 
 
 " Indeed I do. Take the case of wanton and deliberate 
 cruelty to a dumb animal. What natural punishment is 
 there resulting from it to prevent its recurrence ? " 
 
 *' First, the displeasure of the more sympathetic elders ; 
 secondly, to prevent the child repeating the act, never 
 allowing him to have anything to do with animals ; 
 thirdly, the explanation of the horrible nature of the 
 offence and appeal to the doctrine of quid pro quo.^'' 
 
 " Do you think that enough ? " 
 
 " For children properly trained, yes. And further I 
 would remind you that I have laid down the principle not 
 in isolation, but as a part of a carefully reasoned out 
 whole. Granted the conditions I have already explained, 
 it seems to me the doctrine fits in to admiration." 
 
 " Well, I am not sure that I do not withdraw my objec- 
 tion. I was never opposed to the doctrine in the abstract 
 — I thought it proceeded upon the right lines ; my great 
 objection was that I could not always see how the natural 
 penalty was to ensue, —but on that you have enlightened 
 
1 64 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 me,— or how a principle of sucli great difficulty was to be 
 always carried out." 
 
 " Difficulties are incentives to encourage us to fight. 
 Surely, Doctor, you would not resign like a coward. I am 
 sure your nobler self would recall that last remark. If we 
 succumb because of the difficulties, how are we to produce 
 a reform at all ? " 
 
 " I deserve the rebuke," said the Doctor mildly. " But 
 may I put a further question ? Would you pursue the 
 same course at school ? " 
 
 " Certainly I would, though the question is really rather 
 beyond my province. The mass of punishments are merely 
 the results of vicious systems. I know one school for girls 
 where the only punishment is — now what do you think ? 
 — Taking the offender's name off what is called a silver 
 list — a list of the class written out and kept posted for 
 that express purpose. I have not been able to discover 
 that the discipline of the school has suffered at all from 
 the mildness of the punishment. Why should not every 
 school act similarly ? It is an appeal to a right motive, 
 and acts just as forcibly as an appeal to a wrong one. 
 True, it is not the natural result ; but granting the in- 
 firmity of our nature at present, and the imperfection 
 of current arrangements, I do not consider it a serious 
 infringement of the principle I have been upholding." 
 
 "It reminds me," I said, "of a case Locke mentions, 
 where children were kept good merely through the fear of 
 having their shoes taken off." 
 
 " And again," my wife went on, " we all know that in a 
 school that is properly conducted, the punishment most 
 dreaded is being reported to the Head, though nothing 
 else follows than what boys, I hear, call expressively * a 
 jaw.'" 
 
 "There too I can bear you out," I said. " Many a boy has 
 confessed to me, in the days when I was an assistant, that 
 he would far rather do any number of other punishments, 
 or even be caned,, than have a lecture from the head master. 
 I am certain that in this case there is no danger in work- 
 ing upon a boy's sense of shame." 
 
 " Well, I can see," said Mrs. Reynolds, " that there is a 
 great deal to be said in your favour, Mrs. Trelawney ; but 
 I should be half afraid to try the experiment myself." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 65 
 
 " But you must allow for the corruption produced by the 
 other system. After all few faults of children are deliber- 
 ately intended ; they are mostly due to thoughtlessness or 
 weakness of the flesh ; by encouragement and forbearance 
 I have seen children improve in a way which no amount 
 of punishment would ever have produced. For that too is 
 another disadvantage of our ordinary method, that it tends 
 to provoke resentment and defiance — two of the worst 
 qualities it is possible to engender." 
 
 " I have often tried," I said, " and sometimes with 
 marvellous success, the principle of inducing the child to 
 give me a promise that he will try to refrain from certain 
 acts in future. Of course I am careful to point out that it 
 is difficult always to carry out the promise, and that to 
 make the promise and break it is a very serious matter ; 
 but on the whole I think the system works well." 
 
 "It seems to me," said the Doctor, " liable to very grave 
 objections ; though after all I fear that the same holds of 
 almost every proposal one can make in moral matters : our 
 whole discussion has been little more than a balancing of 
 pros and cons. But your method seems to me dangerously 
 like exposing a boy to gratuitous temptation. And it is 
 really a serious matter to put a child in the way of breaking 
 a promise ; if he comes to regard a promise with levity, 
 then all I can say is — God help him hereafter." 
 
 "I have thought over the danger, but in practice have 
 not found it great. Children have for the most part a full 
 realization of the important nature of a promise, even 
 when given to a master ; and if that master has treated 
 them rightly, they will try to keep their word. But I 
 never ask for more than a promise to try, and I sometimes 
 think it well to put on a definite limit of time." 
 
 " Yes, it would be well to safeguard it, and though I 
 am not prepared to say I quite agree, yet I feel that your 
 practical experience in the matter is a factor of no slight 
 weight. But I think we need hardly enter into the ques- 
 tion more. We seem to have gone well over the ground of 
 the moral training to be aimed at in the home, and the ques- 
 tion of punishment has led us by an easy transition to the 
 next branch of our subject — the training to be given by 
 the school ; the only question is — who shall handle it ? who 
 is to be the skittle set up to be knocked down ? " 
 
1 66 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 There was a general chorus of '' Mr. Trelawney f Mr. 
 Trelawney! " while Mrs. Hindley added : " You remember 
 he put himself forward before, and undertook the work 
 which he said my husband should have done, I think it 
 only right that for a punishment — a natural punishment^ 
 mark you — he should now be compelled to continue the 
 exposition, the more so, as he is the only working school- 
 master present." 
 
 " Well, Mrs. Hindley," I replied, " I really did hope 
 that by this time you would have forgotten what passed 
 more than a week ago." 
 
 "You are very complimentary," Mrs. Hindley i-etorted. 
 *' What a lot of interest you must suppose I took in the 
 discussion." 
 
 " I never flattered myself you took so much interest in 
 me. However, I suppose it is natural, though not a 
 punishment, that I should be your leader in this branch 
 of our subject. I have indeed been trying to arrange my 
 thoughts on the point, and will make an effort to be short. 
 But first, I should like to say that much of what my wife 
 has said applies equally well to training at school. You 
 will easily, I think, yourselves see what statements are 
 universal and what specific, so that I need hardly go 
 over them all. The general, indeed, should form the 
 majority, for morals are not limited by time or place ; con- 
 ditions may vary for applying the rules, or there may be 
 differences in the surroundings, which requii'e us to 
 emphasize by way of warning, or give us peculiar chances 
 of impressing certain points ; but in the main moral train- 
 ing must be one and indivisible, an organic growth, suited 
 to the regular organic development of the steadily and 
 gradually growing mind. Hence, though we have parted 
 our subject into branches, I hope we shall all remember this 
 is but a logical not a real separation ; the fact is important 
 to emphasize, as much evil results from putting away 
 different parts of life, as it were, into separate water-tight 
 compartments. Further, you will remember that the pure 
 question of method in the matter of instruction we have 
 been over at length, and I should be only wasting time to 
 touch it again ; please then assume the results of our 
 dissection of Professor Adler's book as already established^ 
 when I go on to consider the points yet unhandled. These 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 6/ 
 
 points, I think, will be found to be mainly a series of 
 cautions — wbat to touch and what not to touch — moral 
 influence brought to bear, not in systematic class-teaching, 
 as expounded by Dr. Adler, on the value of which we are 
 now agreed, but in the e very-day surroundings of school 
 work, and the special occasions or emergencies which may 
 arise of themselves, or may be made by the master. 
 Hence, I may be disjointed, as it is hardly possible to 
 gather such disjecta membra into a logical sequence. I 
 shall, however, be glad if others will fill any gaps I may 
 leave. 
 
 " On the importance of love as a ruling factor throughout, 
 enough has been said ; we must, however, remember that 
 in school this quality is more likely to appear in the form 
 of happiness than in the shape of that more direct and 
 keen emotion which we naturally look for in the home. If 
 the spirit is there, all will do well ; if it is wanting, our 
 efforts at moral training will turn to dust and ashes. I 
 remember being told of an incident in a school which oc- 
 curred at the coming of a new head master. The boys of 
 course were on the qui vive, eager to pick holes and. with 
 their keen perceptions, to label their new ruler at once. He 
 showed himself one morning and opened proceedings by an 
 address to the boys, and this is the report which one of 
 them gave to his people at home : ' When we saw him, we 
 thought we should like him ; but when we heard his voice, 
 we knew it.' They had managed to divine, I suppose, 
 that the man was really fond of boys, and likely to do his 
 best to make them happy. It is the primary condition, 
 useful in every branch of education, but indispensable in 
 moral. And it naturally leads me to emphasize the point, 
 to which I am not quite sure we have yet given its due 
 importance, that the tone of the trainer is of the first 
 moment ; he may be very defective in method, but if his 
 will is right and he can make it felt, his work will be a 
 great one. We commonly are told that example is all-im- 
 portant, and we have, indeed, ourselves already said so ; 
 but I should like to correct the statement, or rather make 
 clearer what we should mean precisely by example. I 
 grant the imperativeness of it, but inasmuch as many of 
 the virtues to which we have to lead our children are such 
 as we have already made an essential part of our own 
 
l68 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 character, so that we act up to them without an effort and 
 quite unconsciously to ourselves, I think we are likely to 
 lose part of our influence if we rely too much on the hope 
 of the children merely copying us. The mere copying is 
 of value, but it may be copying what seems a dead thing 
 — a law of nature, the difficulty of observing which the 
 children will not realize, because they do not see the 
 struggle which has secui^ed its observance among our- 
 selves ; if this is their attitude, as I think it well may be, 
 there is danger that when the temptation comes, they will 
 fall from mere misreckoning of the danger, and of their 
 own strength to meet it. But if we fix our attention — and 
 what I say now I do not mean to limit merely to school life 
 — not on the force of example, but on the tone of character 
 which all our actions display, so as to make our tone, as it 
 were, the very sunlight by which the moral character of 
 our charges is to live and grow, then I think there is more 
 hope that we shall reach our end with greater surety than 
 if we are merely correct in our conduct without the spark 
 of enthusiasm and kindliness which makes children feel 
 that morality is a living thing with a vital effect upon our 
 whole being. I hope you understand me ; the difference 
 seems to me important, but I find it very difficult to put 
 clearly what I exactly mean." 
 
 *' I think I understand," said Mrs. Hindley. "Example, 
 you would say, is but an object in nature, like a plant or 
 a stone, which may excite admiration for its beauty, but 
 which may not lead us any further; but the force of 
 character, illumined by the desire to encourage others, is 
 not an object but a power, like electricity or heat, doing a 
 work of its own — in this case stimulating others to copy 
 us, a result which inevitably follows, but which admira- 
 tion for an unliving thing may or may not produce accord- 
 ing to circumstances." 
 
 " Yes, I think that hits off pretty clearly what I mean, 
 though it is an analogy, and I am always afraid of analogy 
 in argument. The idea of power is, however, a good one 
 to introduce ; it is the guiding and stimulating force of 
 character, which is after all the leading factor to consider. 
 Hence it follows at once that in choosing our schoolmasters 
 we must find out those who are born leaders of men ; a 
 man may have himself an excellent character, and yet for 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 69 
 
 all his effect upon his pupils, may leave them cold. This 
 proviso interprets to some extent, I think, what we meant 
 when we agreed at the beginning of our discussion that 
 the schoolmaster must be the exceptional man." 
 
 " I am afraid," put in my wife, " it leaves the poor 
 parents whose case I have been defending, rather in the 
 lurch ; they cannot alter their natural endowments, where- 
 as we can pick our schoolmasters and additional trainers." 
 
 ''No doubt that is true, but it is a misfortune which I 
 do not see how we are ever to get over, unless you are 
 prepared to accept a Plato-like resolution that only given 
 people shall be allowed to marry." 
 
 At this there was a smile, and Dr. Hindley said : " No, 
 I am afraid that is too much even for me at present, 
 advanced though I am, and readily as I admit that some 
 such course is desirable in the case of those tainted with 
 hereditary disease." 
 
 " Well, then, I fear we must leave the matter to stand. 
 But this fact, to which we have come indirectly, furnishes 
 surely an additional argument, and to my thinking a 
 strong one, for insisting that every one should be sent 
 to school, and not kept at home for the whole course of 
 his training. It may not be true now, though I will 
 not say it is not, but it certainly should be true in a 
 proper state of the public mind on the question of educa- 
 tion, that the average schoolmaster has a higher moral 
 tone than the average parent in any given class of society. 
 Otherwise what is he there for ? A pumping-in machine, 
 I suppose." 
 
 Here Dr. Hindley interrupted me with a smile, saying : — 
 
 " Ah, yes, Trelawney, we know from of old your rooted 
 objection to the parent ; it has not appeared for some time, 
 but we had it in force at the opening of our discussion." 
 
 "Well, but wouldn't you agree to what I have just 
 said?" 
 
 Dr. Hindley shook his head, and replied, laughing : — 
 
 " Oh, I'm not going to be such a fool as to give myself 
 away by expressing an opinion on a subject which only 
 vast evidence could settle, and which then would pro- 
 bably be settled after all merely by personal prejudice. 
 No, thank you." 
 
 " Well, I shall take it then that silence shows consent. 
 
I/O MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 But to proceed. There is an important error into wMch 
 I fear we are likely to fall, if we do not put it before our- 
 selves in explicit terms. We have been talMng so much 
 of moral education and emphasizing its importance for so 
 long a time, that I am afraid when it comes to actual 
 practice, we may conclude it is our duty to be constantly 
 on the subject. There could not be a greater mistake. 
 The conclusion is natural after ardent pleading, but here, 
 at least, I am convinced it would be the mother of vast 
 harm. It is on a par with the main fault of our present 
 education in England, — to my thinking a grievous fault, 
 likely to result in serious damage to the whole national 
 character, — that of over-help, guiding the child too much 
 and never leaving him a moment to develop of himself. 
 You, Doctor, have already dwelt upon the danger, and I 
 need not go over the ground again. I only refer to it 
 here, as we might be led astray from our consideration of 
 the subject in the abstract. For moral development 
 especially the child must be left alone ; if as a child he 
 does not learn to fight temptation unassisted, when, pray, 
 will he do so ? He will grow up flabby and boneless, the 
 sport of every wind that blows. And here, I think, we 
 may perhaps content you, Mr. Reynolds, who have been 
 pleading strongly for the necessity of battle. I quite 
 concede its importance, and would say further that if we 
 can so arrange circumstances as to leave the child to face 
 only those moral dangers which are suited to his strength, 
 then so much the better. But it is seldom we shall be 
 able to do that, I think, and still more seldom that we 
 shall be able to bring the temptations ourselves ; hence 
 my objection to the theory you propounded, for it will be 
 dijQficult to be sure, even when circumstances seem most 
 advantageous, that the temptation will not be far harder 
 than we think. But if we can experiment, as we suppose, 
 with safety, whether the experiment be arranged by our- 
 selves or by circumstances, then let us do so ; only caution 
 is necessary, the very utmost caution. 
 
 '' But to return to the point of which I was treating, it 
 will be well not always to go out of our way to shield a 
 child from temptation, and it will be one of our first 
 principles not to be for ever dwelling upon morality. We 
 shall have set lessons at certain fixed times ; we shall have 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 171 
 
 irregular talks as urgent occasions arise ; we shall secure, 
 so far as may be, that the whole tone around is one of 
 encouragement, and then we shall have done our best ; in 
 the intervals, which will be many, the child must stand 
 alone. The watched pot never boils, and if we are 
 constantly leading the child to think about his motives 
 and teaching him self-introspection before his reasoning 
 faculties are well developed, we shall ruin his will — for no 
 power can be his to balance reasons fairly ; and as for the 
 growth of a spontaneous habit, fresh, cheerful, and natural, 
 we absolutely kill it. Don't overdo it, don't overdo it — 
 that must be our danger signal ; better leave without 
 direct instruction than develop the morbid and self- 
 conscious morality which makes, I fear, either a hypocrite 
 or a prig. 
 
 *' That is a caution I have thought it well to lay down 
 clearly, as it applies to all stages of moral instruction, and 
 really sums up the one great argument against formal in- 
 struction on the subject at all. I now propose to go at 
 some length into various matters which may help or hinder 
 the actual formal instruction which we should give on the 
 lines laid down by Professor Adler. You will remember 
 his book is limited to a consideration of instruction. I do 
 not hope, and after what you have already heard you will 
 hardly expect me, to be able to give you definite informa- 
 tion as to practice. I can only suggest certain plans of 
 action or arrangements which, helping morality, may 
 perhaps be slightly more direct in their practical bearing 
 than the lessons suggested by Professor Adler. 
 
 " And first I would say this, that a crucial test of the 
 value of the home training comes as soon as the child 
 enters school. The alteration of atmosphere is a severe 
 trial to one who has not learnt to stand on his own legs ; 
 if he can face the novelty of his [surroundings without 
 being overthrown, he may be trusted to progress. I am 
 supposing now, what is the commonest case, at least 
 among children of our own class, that the child, never 
 having been at a kindergarten, enters a small school 
 about the age of eight. The larger the school, the 
 greater as a rule the temptation, and the more bewilder- 
 ing to a young child ; hence I would recommend that a 
 small school be chosen, a day-school, and that, if possible, 
 
1/2 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 the child should not enter it till about ten years of age, 
 unless indeed he has elder brothers or sisters who can to 
 some extent encourage him in his new sphere. It would 
 be well indeed if all children first passed through the kin- 
 dergarten, not merely because of its excellence both momlly 
 and intellectually, but because they are then from very 
 early years accustomed to mix with large numbers of 
 others, and have learnt as they grow older, to lean upon 
 themselves almost without knowing it. But this we can- 
 not expect at present, and I do not conceal from myself 
 that even the kindergarten is not perfect. But whether 
 this be so or not, the fact remains that our home education 
 ought to have so prepared the child that the temptations 
 of school life, coinciding as they do with the withdrawal 
 of that closer care which watches him at almost every 
 turn, shall find him ready to fight them boldly, plunged 
 though he be for the first time into the bracing experience 
 of real life. 
 
 "Now one of the primary conditions of good moral 
 arrangements at school must be the classification of 
 children — I was going to say according to their years ; 
 but inasmuch as at the same period there may often be 
 almost as great a divergence between the moral as between 
 the intellectual development of difierent children, I would 
 rather say according to their advancement in moral per- 
 ception. It is not an object very easy to attain, but we 
 must at least try. We frequently see great harm done 
 from the habitual intercourse of children who are at very 
 different stages of moral culture. One boy will have 
 arrived at such a stage that he can discern when a given 
 rule will admit of exception, while other children who 
 are allowed to constantly be his associates, receive a 
 shock every time such a case occurs. I do not quite see 
 how the evil is to be remedied as long as schools are 
 regarded chieflv as int6llectual workshops, and perhaps it 
 occurs more often with children of larger growth than 
 those whom I have just specified ; but it is well to bear 
 it in mind." 
 
 " But surely, Mr. Trelawney," said Mrs. Hindley, " that 
 collision of moral insight is one of the means by which we 
 secure moral development." 
 
 " No doubt it has its value, but I think it would be 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 73 
 
 better if we could ensure that such shocks did not occur 
 save just where we thought best." 
 
 " Ah, Trelawney," said Reynolds, '' I fear you want too 
 much. Surely nature, that is God, may be trusted to do 
 something. After all, however much we may theorize and 
 try, we are liable to overlook essential points and make 
 havoc of the fairest-looking scheme. I would not go too 
 far; some risks we must run, and only hope that our 
 precautions have prevented serious evil. You seem to me 
 to be wanting too much in faith." 
 
 " Yes, E-eynolds, I think your rebuke is deserved. But 
 it is always my tendency to think more can be done by 
 what I may call mere machinery than experience ever 
 shows to be really practicable. I fancy I have overstepped 
 the mark, and am willing to recall what last I said. Let 
 nature then, in this respect at least, have her way — or 
 rather perhaps our social arrangements. All I would still 
 maintain is, that we should take care to avoid the more 
 flagrant evils, the mixing of children of great diversity of 
 years. Most educators are alive to the danger, but, un- 
 fortunately, with the prevalent idea that the aim of 
 school life is to develop the intellect — whereas surely the 
 proper aim is the training in morality, all else being 
 subsidiary to that — I fear we are not always as strict as 
 we might be, but too frequently let the intellect decide. 
 The difficulty is great, especially in view of what parents 
 expect. 
 
 " I have already insisted on the necessity of cheerful- 
 ness in the whole of school business, and as I turn over in 
 my thoughts what actually passes in the e very-day 
 routine of school, the first thing that occurs to me is the 
 need of a definite aim, and regularity in its pursuit. The 
 former point at least is often overlooked. The aim of 
 school life — what should it be ? I just now declared that 
 in the first place it should be morality ; but without 
 going over all the various details which naturally enter 
 into our conception of its final end, I should like to treat 
 specifically of one or two facts which it is necessary always 
 to have in view. The aim must be determined by what 
 is to follow, as it must be with every part of education, if 
 our education is to be a really organic whole. 
 
 ^'To say that education is a preparation for life you 
 
174 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 will probably condemn as a mere truism. But truisms 
 are useful when from them we can deduce some practical 
 maxim to guide our conduct. And that, I think, we can 
 do here. It follows, in the first place, that school moral 
 education should aim at fitting children to guide them- 
 selves well — no matter the period at which they leave — 
 amid those special circumstances into which they find 
 themselves thrown. Now these vary greatly, from the 
 case of the child who has completed his standards and 
 enters at once upon the work of his life, to the case of the 
 young man who only leaves school to pass to a higher 
 school— the University. Hence difficulties, as the teach- 
 ing must be adapted to such very different ends. In the 
 case of the child of working parents, our aim must be to 
 give it a firm grasp of those principles which are likely to 
 be of most service during the rest of his life. Little more 
 can be done than to implant moral principles, showing 
 how they apply, and warning him to beware of such 
 conflicts of principles as may arise hereafter. It will 
 hardly be possible, however, to give him concrete ex- 
 amples in any large number, though a few may be given, 
 and some may occur even among the cases that turn up at 
 school. If so, the most must be made of them." 
 
 ''Pardon me interrupting you," said Mrs. Reynolds, 
 '* but I should like to ask why you think it necessary in 
 the case of children so young, whose reasoning powers in 
 very few cases will have reached a high development, to 
 dwell so much upon cases where reasoning comes in ? 
 Why not leave the child to settle for himself when the 
 difficulty arises in his later life ? " 
 
 " Because I am afraid, if he is not already warned, he 
 may say to himself when crises come that none of the 
 rules given him can possibly apply — they conflict with 
 each other, and therefore nothing can be right. That is 
 likely to be the result on such a mind as we suppose — a 
 mind which cannot look for much direct moral help among 
 its surroundings. Will not the young boy or girl at once 
 say that all he learnt at school was mere schoolmaster's 
 talk — that all the great praise and importance attached to 
 proper conduct was merely to suit the special conditions 
 of school — that as duties conflict, there is no law at all, 
 he may simply please himself ? Such an attitude would 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1/5 
 
 be fatal, and yet I believe it is the common attitude of 
 many who have been carefully trained in categorical 
 morality, but, not having been shown the ultimate 
 foundation, when difficulties come, throw everything over- 
 board. Here, indeed, is the cardinal point of all ; most 
 can recognise a simple duty, and most will fulfil it ; but 
 the foundations of morality are sapped when simple rules 
 no longer hold, and the unhappy victim has never been 
 shown any clue by which to find the true path. Most 
 wrong-doing, I believe, at least of the lesser kind, comes 
 from ignorance rather than wrong intent : — 
 
 ' For evil is wrought by want of thought 
 More than by want of heart.' 
 
 To this end all our enlightenment should be directed — 
 the furnishing of a clue which shall always show the 
 right. I do not, of course, pretend we can give such a 
 clue in all its completeness to a mere child who leaves 
 our hands at the age of twelve or thirteen ; but if we have 
 shown him that such a clue is necessary and taught him 
 to use it upon simple occasions, when, in after-life, with 
 his greater reasoning powers, he comes across a difficulty, 
 then he will, we may trust, have a chance of finding his 
 way, which he never would have had if our teaching had 
 been purely formal. 
 
 " With those children who leave school at a later period, 
 at, it may be, fifteen or sixteen, we shall alter our train- 
 ing if we are wise, so far at least as to give them an 
 insight into the true rules upon which morality rests, and 
 to make the idea of the conflict of duties not merely an 
 idea which they are to develop by after-experience under 
 the rough handling of the outer world, but a living idea, 
 a living principle by which they will have learnt to guide 
 themselves, and whose value they will know from actual 
 experience. We shall, in fact, have more time to arrive 
 at the result we have to prematurely force in the case of 
 the younger ones, with the hope in the latter instance, 
 though hardly, I fear, the certainty, that the plant which 
 has been forced may eventually prove as hardy as the one 
 that has been allowed to develop according to the gentler 
 course of nature. With these older children there will 
 have been time to let our lessons sink in far more 
 
176 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 thoroughly ; much, indeed, which we shall have taught hy 
 twelve to the more hapless class we can safely leave here- 
 till perhaps two years later. Moreover, we shall noAv he. 
 able to go into a larger list of virtues, and to show their 
 bearings more thoroughly than we have been able to do 
 with the first class named ; our foundations thus will be- 
 broadened as well as deepened, and we ought to find later 
 a more solid super-structure. In the first case we may 
 hope, in the latter case we should be sure, that some of 
 our teaching will cling for ever." 
 
 " But," said the Doctor, '' if your principle is to hold, it 
 seems to me we shall be landed in a very strange paradox. 
 If school is to be the preparation for life in the most 
 effective way, and if after-life involves, as it surely does, 
 the chance, nay, the obligation, to manage oneself with the 
 very least of help from others, does it not follow that we 
 ought to give children while still at school the means of 
 managing themselves, and that the earlier they are to 
 leave the more freedom they ought to have ? " 
 
 Every one was clearly rather startled by this remark^ 
 and for my part I really did not know what to say. I 
 thought for a few moments, and then replied : — 
 
 " No, Doctor, I really must give it up. I confess your 
 objection has quite overthrown me. I cannot believe it 
 would be a good thing to do, and yet I cannot believe that 
 my principle is wrong, or that either of the inferences we 
 have respectively drawn from it is faulty. I am com- 
 pletely nonplussed." 
 
 We looked at each other a little while in silence, till 
 my wife, who had been going on with her work, said : — 
 
 *' Why, surely, after all the answer is not very far to 
 seek. Does it not lie in the point you were last discussing 
 — the conflict of duties ? " 
 
 " In what way ? " I asked. 
 
 " Why, we see that we ought to allow children more 
 liberty in proportion as they are likely the sooner to have 
 to stand entirely on their own legs. On the other hand 
 we see that it is a dangerous thing to do, and moreover 
 ridiculous, if a child, and that too a child whose moral 
 training is presumably inferior to that of others, is to be 
 allowed more liberty than those very others, liberty which 
 he will not in all probability know how to use so well. But 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 77 
 
 it is a question of balancing the one end against the other, 
 and it seems to me that if we grant the greater liberty, 
 but qualify it by remembering the force of the other con- 
 sideration, so that what we allow is not perhaps actually 
 more liberty than w^e shall allow to other children at a 
 more advanced period of their moral proficiency, but 
 simply greater freedom relatively, which after all may be 
 freedom under strict supervision, we shall have reached 
 cur end. Freedom in this connection where those whom 
 we are considering are of necessity in statu pupillariy 
 differing from grown men, surely only means a relative 
 freedom at the best." 
 
 " True," I replied ; " but it does not seem to me to much 
 lessen the paradox. Still, you have suggested to me the 
 real solution ; at least I venture to hope it is so. It is 
 this — that in view of the early emancipation of certain 
 children from all moral control, our discipline over them 
 should be lighter from the first, and we must relax it more 
 speedily and with greater leaps than we should do with 
 children who will be with us longer." 
 
 " But that remains a paradox still," said the Doctor. 
 " Why not say the earlier the emancipation, the more 
 stringent the control ? " 
 
 " Because I am afraid of the sudden rebound. So I am 
 afraid the paradox still is there. Really the question 
 seems likely to reduce itself to a question of practical 
 efficiency in the trainer. We shall have, I fancy, to pro- 
 ceed on the lines of giving a greater freedom — and yet I 
 do not say necessarily great ; it may be only a relatively 
 great freedom in proportion to the tender years of our 
 flocks. To those who are to leave us early, the course will 
 bring great difficulties in its train ; but if we aim at it 
 throughout, no doubt we shall be able to conquer most of 
 them. And moreover, it seems to me that this very diffi- 
 culty proves the correctness of a principle which the 
 Doctor has made the fundamental one in the whole of our 
 training — the principle of rule by love. Now if we rule 
 by love, we ought to have no fear of our teaching being 
 dropped because we were not able to prolong it as we 
 wished. On the contrary I think that the younger the 
 children the more are they likely to retain their affection 
 for us and to guide their after-conduct by what we should 
 
 N 
 
178 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 like. And moreover, it is undoubtedly true that children 
 who come from those classes where love is comparatively 
 little bestowed upon them value it more and are more readily 
 influenced by it than children of a more fortunate position. 
 So that it seems to me that here we have reached a most 
 unexpected corroboration of the truth of a principle which 
 was most likely to be called in question — the principle 
 that in all we should be guided by love. 
 
 " The same general thought must be kept before our 
 minds in training those who will be with us till eighteen 
 or nineteen. As we can advance more slowly and with 
 a greater wealth of illustration and practical experiment 
 with the second class of children than with the first, so 
 when we have those who are passing from boyhood alto- 
 gether, we shall do well to lead them on to the more 
 complex problems of morality and get them to express 
 their views in set treatises or essays. Throughout oui* 
 aim must be to be gradually removing the leading-strings 
 and props which support the feeble younglings, till, with 
 the case of the oldest, who will soon be their own masters, 
 we should be able to throw off the restraint altogether and 
 say : ' You nowknow what is the path of right — walk in it 
 rightly and prove yourself a man.' That is, I well know, 
 the aim of our schools now ; but I cannot admit they 
 altogether do well : we have but to consider how wild are 
 the youths just emancipated from school, how childish, as 
 I have heard it said by the Head of one of our great public 
 schools, are the mass of undergraduates, to recognise that 
 there must be something fatally wrong. What that wrong 
 is, it is not easy to see. You will say that with the 
 responsibility of monitorship and the larger freedom 
 allowed to the Sixth Form boy, you have gone as far as 
 possible consistently with the welfare of the school as 
 a whole : how is it then you do not succeed better ? For 
 certainlj^ it is true that the average Sixth Form boy is 
 far less childish than the average undergraduate a year 
 or two his senior." 
 
 *' But," said Mr. Reynolds, " you will always get a little 
 outbreak of uproariousness when the last checks are re- 
 moved and the young man feels for the first time that he 
 is really free." 
 
 *'No doubt; but I think it is excessive with under- 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 79 
 
 graduates, and is often far worse than mere uproarious- 
 ness Wiiere does the fault lie, and how are we to cure 
 it?" 
 
 "I should ascribe it to three distinct causes," said the 
 Doctor : " first, that at school with the sense of responsi- 
 bility his monitorship brings, a boy has, as it were, an 
 outer check upon him, taking the place of the old con- 
 trol ; secondly, that it is impossible at a boarding-school 
 to give him that absolute freedom which, is the sole 
 guarantee of power to manage oneself — the freedom con- 
 ferred is not a real freedom, but only the removal of two 
 or three of the chains ; thirdly, he has seldom been really 
 instructed in morality ; he has done right because he must, 
 either from fear of his master or from a sense of shame, 
 and not because he would." 
 
 " I suppose then. Doctor, your cure would be to have 
 no boarding-schools, — a point on which we agreed before, — 
 to give proper instruction, and to give real freedom in 
 everything to the oldest boys at a school ? " 
 
 " Not necessarily to the oldest, but to those whom we 
 now take to be most suited for monitors." 
 
 " I see ; but how far would you extend this freedom ? 
 Would you let them, for instance, stay away from school 
 when they liked ? " 
 
 " Certainly, if their moral development is such that you 
 think they can be trusted in other matters." 
 
 " Really, Doctor, when shall we reach the end of your 
 revolutions?" 
 
 *' When the world is perfect according to my ideas, not 
 before." 
 
 I laughed, and said : — 
 
 *' Well, I am so far in sympathy with you, that if my 
 elder boys do not work, I merely expostulate and say that 
 if they do not by then know the value of work, they ought 
 to, and I am not going to bother about teaching them any 
 more. I seldom find the method fail. And, after all, if we 
 do otherwise, what does it amount to ? We keep the boy 
 at work for a year or two longer, get him entered safely at 
 the University, with, it may be, a scholarship to the credit 
 of the school, and then leave him with calm conscience 
 exposed to manifold temptations we know he has not the 
 strength to resist : whereas it would be far better for his 
 
l80 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 parents to have discovered of what material he was 
 made at first, and turned him out to work at some employ- 
 ment or other which would at least keep him from mischief 
 and not lead him to think he came into the world merely 
 to be lazy and possibly corrupt others." 
 
 " Dear me ! " said Mrs. Hindley ; ^' I wonder, Mr. Tre- 
 lawney, how long you have been preparing that little 
 explosion ? " 
 
 " Oh, it's a pet theory of mine, and you must excuse my 
 Avarmth. But I do seriously think that less moral harm 
 would be done — to take this point of view alone — if school- 
 masters were not so anxious to drive their boys into getting 
 scholarships without any regard to their moral character. 
 Better let a boy know less and rely on himself more, than 
 know vastly more and be weak as a reed. And in this 
 point, at all events, we have such an easy chance of really 
 insisting on the moral point of view. It is no good to 
 retain the whip and spur till the very end of a boy's 
 career at school. The fall we may be sure will come, 
 unless our foundations have been laid extraordinarily 
 deep. But if we are to go as far as the Doctor suggests, 
 I fear we shall scare parents out of their wits. If you can 
 get their consent, well and good ; but if not, such a scheme 
 is a mere chimera." 
 
 " You forget, Trelawney, I have over and over again 
 claimed that I am not legislating for the world as it is. 
 We have already admitted that to secure good morality, 
 the world must advance along all lines at once. Given 
 a time when it was likely we could carry out such a 
 scheme we should also have parents prepared to accept it." 
 
 " Ah, that simplifies matters considerably," I said ; 
 "and I agree with you in thinking that the plan would 
 be desirable. Desirable, indeed, I admit it to be now ; but 
 I can hardly say I think it anywhere within reach cf 
 present-day politics." 
 
 *' Nor I," said the Doctor ; " but that is neither here 
 nor there. Will ycu please resume the thread of your 
 iirgument ? " 
 
 Thus appealed to, I went on : — 
 
VII 
 
 " "YTtT"^ have now, I trust, explained sufficiently in detail 
 V V the bearing of the first maxim I deduced from the 
 truism that school education must aim at life — a maxim, I 
 would repeat, which is equally applicable to the moral train- 
 ing of home. I now invite your attention to a second, which 
 is that we must warn children not to expect to find their 
 own moral code as yet in general acceptance ; the world, 
 we must tell them, is not as advanced as they." 
 
 " But why not leave them to find that out for them- 
 selves, which they will do soon enough ? " said the 
 Doctor. 
 
 " For the same reason that I gave in answer to Mrs. 
 Reynolds — the fear lest in discovering that their own 
 views were not the same as those of the world at large 
 and that they could not always get the world to bow, they 
 should hastily conclude they were themselves wrong and 
 all they had learnt an enthusiast's dream. Everything 
 might then go, and all love's labour be lost. But if they 
 are warned, two good results may ensue : first, they may 
 go out with the intention of reformers, keenly set on 
 proving the superiority of their code ; secondly, they will 
 believe, when they see how far the world is below the 
 beautiful dream of moral perfection which they have 
 indulged, that it is all the more desirable to make every 
 effort to reach the consummation so devoutly to be wished. 
 For this, I think, at least is universally true, that one 
 who has been once inspired with the love of true moral 
 beauty, though he may fall from his ideal to even a large 
 extent, yet never wholly shakes himself free from its 
 power, and will make efforts at times to show its beauty 
 to others. And with all our young men and women 
 turned out with heads and hearts full of noble dreams of 
 
 181 
 
1 82 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 moral beauty, I think that but a few generations might 
 see the world vastly changed. 
 
 " Next, I would bring home to the minds of the child- 
 ren that a different code applies in many things to 
 children from what applies in the case of grown men and 
 women. Of course this is one of the greatest difficulties 
 in our way, but it must be faced and exemplified where- 
 ever possible. Arguments from analogy may here be of 
 use, as, for instance, that it is harmful for a child to sit up 
 late, whereas to a man it would often be injurious to 
 spend as many hours in bed as are necessary for a child. 
 But moral examples can also be used : a good one to take 
 would be obedience. A child must be prepared to accept 
 the bidding of another, because it cannot yet see all the 
 bearings of a question ; but for a full-grown man to do 
 exactly as he was told, where his own interests were con- 
 cerned as much as those of the other, and where he had 
 himself as good powers and opportunities of forming a 
 judgment — a frequent case in politics — is nothing short of 
 either criminal laziness or cowardice. It seems to me very 
 desirable to make this point very clear, as one of the 
 commonest objections which children raise is : ' Why may 
 not I do it ? So-and-so does it ' ; and it is but a discon- 
 tenting answer to reply that what is good for grown people 
 is not necessarily good for little boys and girls. It is em- 
 phatically a case where reason should be used as soon as 
 ever it is possible. 
 
 " Another point I would mention, but in this I shall be 
 passing from injunctions to warnings — that is, injunctions 
 reversed. Avoid moral precocity. A child may be led by 
 constant talking of morality to think that its conduct is 
 all that can be desired. Should you see traces of such 
 belief, you may be sure you are doing harm. The danger 
 is, of course, only too closely akin to the other danger 
 which accompanies all teaching of morality by set discus- 
 sion — the danger of thinking that talk about morality and 
 moral action are one and the same thing. The type of 
 character meant is not uncommon, I grieve to say, in the 
 religious world, — we have indeed already referred to it, — 
 and unhappily not so rare as to be altogether unknown 
 even amongst young school children. I, at least, have 
 met with more than one instance of it. It is the out- 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 83 
 
 growth of unwise probing into a child's sentiments and 
 undue fostering of self-introspection. The harm is often 
 done at home, but may be produced or certainly increased 
 at school. But we must beware of confounding or letting 
 the child confound intellectual knowledge of morality with 
 morality itself. And, on the other hand, I would say 
 this — never make a child do what he thinks to be wrong. 
 Cases of conscience of this kind do arise, and however 
 foolish we may think the child's opinion to be, if we 
 cannot persuade him otherwise, we must let our point go. 
 To force a child to act against the bidding of his con- 
 science is to sap the very foundation of all morality. It 
 is our duty, then, to bring reason to bear, and if we fail, 
 well, we fail, though we have done our best. But here, 
 too, I would add yet another caution — we must not argue 
 too much. If we spend too long a time or too much effort 
 in trying to persuade a child to see as we know to be 
 best, we are likely to develop both vanity and obstinacy. 
 The proverb here applies : ' Answer a fool according to 
 his folly and he shall be wise in his own conceit.' No ; 
 we must allow the matter to pass if driven too hard, but 
 bear the point in mind and attack it from time to time, 
 though indirectly and so that the child will not see our 
 aim. And similarly I would say : never force an apology, 
 never even suggest one. It is not an uncommon method 
 of making a child escape punishment, but I would rather 
 let him go scot free than suggest to him a mode of conduct 
 which, from the circumstances under which it occurs, often 
 ends in nothing else than telling a public lie. If the offender's 
 own conscience suggests this mode of reparation, well and 
 good ; but I think it will be found that it seldom does. Re- 
 pentance with children, according to my observation, 
 usually takes the form of leading to increased affection and 
 a greater and more persistent effort to please, rather than 
 to the performance of what is perhaps the hardest of all 
 tasks to a self-respecting being — the open confession of 
 one's own fault. I am aware that such confession is a 
 wonderful moral discipline ; but how many of us would 
 willingly undergo it ? And, after all, I think that in the 
 case where an apology is practically forced from the child, 
 it is as much a desire — perhaps not expressed to oneself — 
 to gratify our pride that leads us to recommend that 
 
1 84 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 particular course as any real concern about the child's 
 moral welfare. 
 
 " In many of the points I have lately been discussing, 
 you will easily see that I have trespassed beyond my 
 province : for much of what I have said applies equally to 
 home as to school ; in fact, we may say they are general 
 principles of morality. But now I should like to pass on 
 to other matters which do really concern schools in chief 
 and above all, though even here I will not say but what 
 you may discover germs of thought which are of use in 
 every branch of ethical training ; for, after all, as we have 
 said, such training must be one and continuous from first 
 to last ; it will, therefore, be only one proof the more that 
 our principles are right, if we find that those we lay down 
 for one branch of the training are really in essence ap- 
 plicable to them all. But I do not propose to stop any 
 more to dwell upon this feature ; the stretching of our 
 maxims as far as they will go is a task that may safely be 
 left to ourselves. 
 
 " Let us first treat our subject by considering in what 
 point lies the essential difference between home and school. 
 The most obvious difference is suggested by the grouping 
 into classes which occurs as soon as a child enters school. 
 Here, first, he gets his initiation explicitly into life, where 
 each individual as an individual is unimportant, where 
 each is merely a part of one great whole. It is the bring- 
 ing-out and emphasizing of this vital point — a point of the 
 first magnitude in regard to morality — that seems to me 
 to constitute one of the leading features of school life and 
 at the same time its claim to occupy a very high place in 
 any system of moral training. For, after all, does not 
 a really living morality turn more upon the fact that one 
 grasps one's own insignificance in comparison with others 
 than upon any other single fact whatever ? We are each 
 single cells together helping to make up the whole mass 
 of connective social tissue. ScTiool is the real initiation 
 into social claims and social life. The family, it seems to 
 me, may be and too often is, at least from some points of 
 view, an anti-social centre, a circle for the sake of any 
 members of which we are often willing to disregard the 
 claims of society at large. I see you do not quite grasp 
 what I mean." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 85 
 
 " No, I certainly do not," said the Doctor. '^ I always 
 look upon the family as the centre from which spread our 
 altruistic feelings ; they take their origin in the love 
 which is naturally engendered in any family which is 
 properly conducted, and from there, as we grow older^ 
 we extend feelings similar, though not perhaps so strongs 
 to the larger family of humanity around us." 
 
 " I am aware that is the ordinary view," I replied ; " but 
 it seems to me there is something to be said for the other 
 point of view too. What I mean is this : I should not, of 
 course, deny that as you. Doctor, have just said, in the 
 ultimate analysis our social feelings can probably be 
 traced back to our regard for the various members of our 
 own family ; but, on the other hand, it often happens that 
 the members of a family, who may be completely social in 
 their dealings one with another, may be so locked up in 
 one narrow sphere, as it were, as to care nothing for the 
 claims of the outside world when they come into conflict 
 with the interests of their relatives. And is not this 
 essentially an anti-social feeling ? It is simply a large 
 extension of selfishness. Take an instance where a rela- 
 tive or friend has done wrong and it is in one's power to 
 protect him from suffering the consequences, if we choose 
 to adopt a line of conduct which, while it will save him, 
 will not inflict any harm that is apparent at the first 
 glance on any special individual. To make a strong com- 
 parison, such conduct seems to me little better than honour 
 among thieves. In fact, to my thinking, the proper 
 argument to adopt is that in proportion as the wrong is 
 a wrong to society at large, and is, as it were, diffused 
 generally, the more it behoves us to protect society even 
 at the expense of our own near friends. If the wrong is 
 a wrong to a single individual, he may usually be trusted 
 to protect his own interests from a mere feeling of self- 
 regard ; but if the wrong does not come home specially to 
 any one, then, as good citizens, it is our duty even to go 
 out of our way to denounce the offender, though at much 
 suffering to ourselves. The case is by no means of infre- 
 quent occurrence. Take the administration of public 
 offices for instance. How often do we wink at what may 
 be perhaps mere slackness in the discharge of duty, though 
 often, I fear, it is far more than that, simply because the 
 
1 86 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 offender is a friend of our own or a member of our party ! 
 Sometimes our error may be comparatively venial, as 
 when we help the offender to re-election ; sometimes it 
 takes the form of actually suppressing evidence we can 
 give or indirectly conniving at his offence. Smuggling is 
 a common form of transgression in this respect ; many 
 people who would not defraud the customs themselves yet 
 say nothing when they know their friends do it. Now 
 I maintain that such a course is absolutely wrong, and the 
 principle I lay do^vn is in brief this : that private feelings 
 of affection must be utterly disregarded in all cases of 
 wrong-doing, and the more petty the wrong and the less 
 directly it is an offence against any one in particular, the 
 more it behoves us to put society first. What is every 
 man's business is no man's business, and were there not 
 those very devoted people who make it a point to show up 
 a wrong wherever they come across it, — the action which is 
 exemplified by the proceedings of societies for prevention 
 of cruelty of various kinds, — then, I say, the world would 
 be very far from progressing even as well as it now does. 
 A development of this sense of public duty, of the impor- 
 tance of public claims as against private feelings, seems 
 to me one of the main direct ioDS in which we should try 
 to work to secure an improvement in public morality, and 
 especially by teaching children the correct view." 
 
 " Your theory is a noble one, Trelawney," said Rey- 
 nolds ; " but I fear there is little chance of its being carried 
 out. And, after all, does not this strict feeling of justice 
 lead you to a too complete disregard of the counter- 
 balancing principle — the great one of mercy? Forgiveness 
 of -svrongs is often the most effective punishment." 
 
 '* True. That is a principle I often apply at school ; but 
 I think it is more effective with children than with grown 
 men ; and certainly I feel very strongly indeed that it is 
 our business as educators to try to raise public tone in the 
 respect I have named, even though in considering the 
 theory in the abstract we may lay too much stress on that 
 one principle which is too often disregarded. Society 
 stands paramount ; from society the individual gets his 
 entire meaning. And this brings me back to the point 
 from which I fear I have rather digressed — the fact that 
 school is the opening of really social life. From this one 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 8/ 
 
 fact seems to me to follow a chief principle by which we 
 must guide our instruction always — at home we shall 
 cultivate in especial those virtues which are self -regarding 
 or which result from deep sympathy and love for our 
 fellows ; at school we shall cultivate chiefly the social 
 virtues, extending the feelings of love and sympathy^ 
 which the child brings with him from home limited to a 
 comparatively narrow set of persons, to the wider circle of 
 humanity and indeed of all living things. I do not mean 
 to say that the two spheres can be kept apart either at 
 school or at home in their entirety ; I only draw attention 
 to the main distinctions and leanings. What is separate 
 in discussion may not be separate in practice. And this 
 consideration of our social duties will naturally culminate 
 in the consideration of that special form of them to which 
 so much attention has been recently drawn — one's duties 
 as a citizen. But it is a great mistake to cut that off 
 from other moral training, as if it were a branch apart ; 
 one's whole duty as a citizen embraces everything, and 
 therefore all our moral training should be working to that 
 end, and if it has been conducted in the right method, we 
 shall, when we come to treat specifically of civic duty, 
 find that little remains to be done save putting in a new 
 light duties already quite within our grasp, already prac- 
 tised. 
 
 " And the grouping of children into forms and associa- 
 tions enables us to teach them some other valuable lessons, 
 which I think I need do no more than mention. They are 
 such as these : the balancing of claims of conflicting so- 
 cieties, of the duty perhaps towards a class or a house as 
 compared with our duty to the school as a whole, or of 
 the claims of the school as compared with the claims of 
 home — a point which takes sometimes, though in a good 
 school but rarely, the extreme and difiicult form of a con- 
 flict between the commands of a parent and of a master, 
 in regard, it may be, to such a matter as night-work ; 
 the necessity of submitting to greater order and method 
 than is always necessary or desirable at home, in order to 
 further the general school life ; development of patriotism 
 or esprit de corps, by which I do not mean that blind 
 unreasoning form of it, which ends simply in saying that 
 all we do is good, and if ever others differ, they must be 
 
1 88 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 necessarily bad ; but a thinking admiration and love of 
 one's fellows, due to a real regard for them, and not 
 separated from the willingness to boldly rebuke their 
 faults whenever one discovers them ; in short, doing the 
 best for the welfare of the school from the highest attain- 
 able point of view ; and, above all, the leading children to 
 feel that we have duties even towards our enemies ; and 
 that because our love for our schoolfellows is weaker than 
 our love for our own near kin, it does not therefore foUov/ 
 that we are right in treating them worse. Here, in fact, 
 I think we shall find the great difficulty, in leading the 
 child to extend his s;yTnpathies to those with whom he 
 comes in contact, not because, as at home, he loves them 
 and they do him good, but because it is his duty as a 
 human being. Of the more manly virtues which are de- 
 veloped by removing the child from what I may call, 
 without disparaging intent, the nui'sery atmosphere to 
 school, I hardly think it needful to speak. They result 
 very largely from the natural conditions of things with- 
 out special interference from us, whereas what we are 
 considering now is rather those points in which morality 
 wants guidance from the trainers of yoiith. 
 
 '* But I should like here to insert a caution. It seema 
 to me that boys — I do not think the case holds in 
 the same way with girls — pass through a stage that I 
 may call non-moral, when their moral perceptions indeed 
 appear to remain the same, but their moral feelings are 
 asleep. In the rough I should say the age is usually 
 from about twelve to fifteen. Up to twelve or thereabouts 
 the child is amenable to the softening influence of sym- 
 pathy and love ; but then comes a time when the boy 
 is apt to speak of the tenderer emotions as, in his ex- 
 pressive language, ' bosh ' or ' rot.' Appeals to his 
 heart, to use popular phraseology, seem useless, or less 
 useful, at all events, than before ; while that motive 
 power has not been replaced by the perception of duty 
 as a right in itself. The stage is a critical one, and 
 here, if anywhere, I think the opponents of our system 
 may reasonably urge that love breaks down. It does 
 not altogether, but as a conscious motive to the boy 
 it seems for the time dead. At this stage, then, we may 
 have to resort to command more than at other periods ; 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 89 
 
 "but my ovvn experience shows me that it is precisely now 
 that reasoning begins to be useful and produce great 
 effects. The boy is, of course, still guided by affection, if 
 he is rightly handled; but it now requires to be rein- 
 forced by direct teaching, showing that he is in such a 
 position that he cannot do merely what he likes. It is a 
 curious phase, but happily only passing. In many ways 
 it is the most critical stage of a boy's moral development. 
 Cruelty is a very frequent accompaniment, especially 
 manifesting itself in that abominable boyish vice — bully- 
 ing. A calm disregard of the feelings of others is pro- 
 minent throughout. When such conditions prevail, we 
 must not be surprised if for a time our pupil make no 
 moral progress, or even seem to retrogress. But we need 
 not therefore despair. We can use the time well for 
 gathering moral percepts and working them up into 
 generalised forms ; for the intellect now is often pecu- 
 liarly active, and begins to take an interest in all that 
 goes on ; and though the moral judgment, which we can 
 now be training, may not bear fruit in immediate action, 
 the conclusions reached will not be forgotten, but will be 
 stored up in memory, and in most cases be applied when 
 the conscience begins at last to develop in full vigour, 
 about the age, roughly speaking, of sixteen. It is well 
 during this transition time to make comparatively few 
 calls upon the boy for moral action in unusual directions, 
 rather give him opening for his animal spirits ; for if they 
 are allowed a healthy development, we shall find him 
 later charged with a fund of energy which will influence 
 his moral conduct in unexpected ways. After all, moral- 
 ity depends, in a more vital way than we often recognise, 
 upon the condition of the animal organism ; and if during 
 this period of moral lassitude we can work upon some of 
 those parts of a boy^s constitution which will affect him 
 afterwards, then I think our time will by no means be 
 wasted. 
 
 " It would be impossible, and indeed undesirable, for me 
 to attempt to lay down a complete, or nearly complete, 
 list of the methods in which we may help the moral 
 growth of the children put under our charge at school. 
 In many points now all good schools are agreed. It will 
 only be necessary to dissent here and there ; and I can 
 
190 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 best perhaps attain the end we have in view by taking- 
 some points in detail which it seems to me can be im- 
 proved, or where we are at present altogether defective. 
 Of course I am speaking now of jiandling subjects quite 
 apart from the set intellectual instruction in ethics on 
 which we have already dwelt. I shall probably find 
 occasion to add a few warnings, and my omissions will, 
 I trust, be supplemented by suggestions from each and all 
 of you. 
 
 '' To begin with, I cannot insist too strongly upon the 
 value of always opening and closing school with prayers." 
 
 Here Dr. EUndley at once exclaimed : — 
 
 " But you forget, Trelawney, we are trying to consider 
 moral education apart from religious influences alto- 
 gether." 
 
 " If you go as far as that," I replied, '' I fear you are 
 attempting an impossibility. It is impossible to drive 
 out religion from the air, as impossible as it is to exhaust 
 the oxygen." 
 
 " But you yourself agreed earlier to this course of pro- 
 ceeding." 
 
 " Pardon me," I said ; " what I agreed to was trying to 
 devise a system of moral as apart from religious instruc- 
 tion and education. To expect to do so apart from reli- 
 gious influences altogether seems to me beating the air." 
 
 " Yes," said the Doctor, " I admit the correctness of 
 your statement. I certainly exaggerated. But still, you 
 are now going further than your own position, and directly 
 introducing religious training." 
 
 " Not necessarily, I think," was my rejoinder ; " for 
 even apart from directly religious emotions, attendance at 
 divine service has a sobering and solemnising effect, which 
 the educator is quite at liberty to use without committing 
 himself to religious training." 
 
 "I fear," said Mrs. Hindley, "you are getting too 
 subtle for us. I admit the solemnising influences of a 
 religious service under certain circumstances ; but I should 
 find it hard to believe that those influences were not re- 
 ligious in themselves. However, let us hear what you 
 have to say ; we are not bound to admit it as a good part 
 of purely moral education." 
 
 " Well, then," I resumed, " it seems to me that school 
 
MORAL EDUCATION I9I 
 
 prayers at the beginning and end of school, by the sober- 
 ing effect which they have, lead boys to realize that 
 school life is an earnest life, and that it is important to 
 approach it in the most serious way. But to attain this 
 end fully the prayers must not be a mere formal business, 
 hurried over without any attempt to bring out the noblest 
 side of them. The reader, who, of course, will be the 
 head master and never a chaplain, will give much time 
 and thought to reading them in the most impressive way^ 
 so as to bring home to the boys' minds the idea that it is 
 not a mere piece of routine which has to be finished as 
 quickly as possible, but is a type of the way in which 
 everything in life sh9uld be done. To this end it is well 
 that the prayers should be varied ; with the young, at all 
 events, I think the constant repetition of the same prayers 
 is apt to seem monotonous, and does not lead to the de- 
 sired effect. At the same time, I would rarely have 
 extemporaneous prayers. My own feeling in regard to 
 them, though I am aware that on this point there is a 
 large divergence of opinion, is that they are seldom, if 
 ever, impressive, if only for the reason that you cannot 
 expect people to be able at given moments to express the 
 deep emotions which a state of prayer should naturally 
 arouse." 
 
 "Really, Trelawney, I do not think now," said the 
 Doctor, "you can deny that you are treating the subject 
 from a purely religious point of view." 
 
 " Perhaps I am going rather far," I answered ; " but 
 still I am not sure that a state of prayer is in every case 
 necessarily the same as what is usually recognised as a 
 religious state. It seems to me that in moments of seri- 
 ous thought one naturally falls into the state which is 
 identical with a state of prayer, as far at least as the 
 mere emotions go, though I do not deny that the feeling 
 of devotion to a personal God may make a difference. But 
 that difference, I should say, does not constitute a differ- 
 ence in the actual state of prayer qud prayer. However, 
 the distinction is a subtle one, and I may not carry you 
 all with me, so I will not labour it any more. Of course, 
 if you cannot accept my position, and it might be contro- 
 verted from two opposite points of view, you must drop 
 from your recollections what I have just been saying. 
 
192 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " But to proceed. Because of the desire to make ser- 
 vices impressive, I should avoid the use of prayers — of 
 which many have been composed — which do not breathe 
 a real spirit of deep earnestness throughout. It often 
 seems to me that the collections of what are called family 
 prayers are wanting in precisely that element which 
 would make them most valuable. They seem merely a 
 collection of every possible petition which is likely to be 
 often made, but without the life which is of the real 
 essence of tine prayer. A long prayer often strikes me 
 as being unprayerlike exactly in proportion to its length. 
 Of course there are divergencies of feeling on this im- 
 portant matter ; but for my own part I think there are 
 but few prayers in English which are worthy to be put 
 on a level with those in the Book of Common Prayer. 
 But, no doubt, I am not an impartial judge, as I was 
 brought up as a member of the Church of England ; and 
 it is very hard to sever the emotions awakened by a 
 thing itself from those awakened by its associations. 
 However, I give it as my own opinion without wishing 
 to force it upon you. Indeed, for my own part I regard 
 the literary beauty of those prayers as no small item in 
 their influence. The perception of beauty has always a 
 moral influence — you may deny that the influence of this 
 particular beauty is religious; I do not think you can 
 deny that it is moral. 
 
 " For the sake of the impressiveness of the services, I 
 would not have a boy read the lessons. It is a rare thing 
 if he can bring out the meaning as well as the head 
 master, with his greater width of experience, ought to be 
 able to do. In any case the whole service will be short, 
 occupying scarcely at most ten minutes ; and a lesson 
 from the Bible need not perhaps occur at the end of 
 school. I would have, too, a special selection of lessons 
 made, consisting of those parts which are most likely to 
 appeal to the young, whether from their literary or their 
 moral beauty. A great many parts of the Bible are quite 
 beyond the comprehension of boys and girls at school; 
 these parts I would have omitted entirely. Moreover, 
 the head master should on special occasions choose such 
 parts as are likely to show their own bearing upon recent 
 incidents, whether in the life of the school or in the 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 93 
 
 history of the world. I do not think we can possibly go 
 too far in bringing our services into vital connection with 
 the every-day affairs of our life. I am convinced that 
 religion has lost much of its influence because we keep 
 our churches open only on Sunday, and observe Sunday 
 in such a way as to lead people to think that religion is 
 to be followed most duteously then, but during the rest 
 of the week we may do as we please. We want a more 
 vital connection between every-day life and religious and 
 moral feelings, and some of the rules I am laying down 
 would, I think, go far towards supplying the defect. And 
 further, it seems to me we should gain in this union if 
 we sometimes chose our lessons not from the Bible but 
 from other authors who have left us valuable thoughts on 
 morality. Or we might make collections of such passages, 
 and read one or two of them occasionally as a supplement 
 to the passages from the Bible. Whatever we can do to 
 bring the young to feel that the Bible is a book for every- 
 day guidance, and for treating in the same way as we 
 should treat other books, is a clear gain to the cause of 
 progressive morality. 
 
 " Further, I would have the head master just occa- 
 sionally give a short address on some of the leading 
 points in morality. I do not like to speak of a sermon, 
 because it is apt to call up too stilted and lifeless ideas — 
 I beg your pardon, Reynolds — and, moreover, seems to 
 cut one off from all possibility of indulging in the lighter 
 vein of address with humour intermixed. I am a great 
 believer in the light style of treatment, especially with 
 children. Hence I recommend addresses and not sermons. 
 Let them be of the most familiar style, just as a friend 
 talking to friends. If the master is in earnest, the 
 earnestness will appear, and will lose none of its effect 
 from its surroundings. Boys, I know, like this kind of 
 address ; it might even occasionally be intermingled with 
 questions to some of those present. And, above all, let it 
 be practical. I have myself found it valuable to take a 
 single virtue, point out its importance both for the present 
 and for the future ; give illustrations of it, especially 
 drawn from what has happened in school to oneself ; and 
 put it all, not in grandiloquent language, but just as one 
 would tell a story to a friend. Boys see the point so 
 
 o 
 
194 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 much more easily if one takes incidents in their own 
 career, and can quote the excuses they give in their own 
 words. Hosts of such illustrations present themselves to 
 one who is on the look-out ; and by this" means we can 
 bring home to the boys' minds the fact that morality is 
 an affair of every-day life, not a treasure to be kept under 
 lock and key and brought out for display now and then. 
 
 " But these addresses must be short and of infrequent 
 occurrence. I would never give more than two per terra, 
 and usually only one. I have two reasons for this course : 
 first, the desire to prevent them being monotonous ; 
 secondly, the fact that they will require very careful 
 preparation ; and we cannot expect a master who ia 
 constantly preaching to be able to produce much that is 
 new on each occasion. If our sermons in churches were 
 rare treats, instead of occurring wuth regularity every 
 Sunday, I think, Mr. Reynolds, you and your fellows 
 would rejoice, and at the same time would produce ten 
 times the effect you do." 
 
 " I quite agree with you," said Reynolds, " but I fear 
 we should often have empty churches ; for, though I am 
 sorry to have to confess it, I believe it to be true that the 
 mass of people come very little for the service, but chiefly, 
 if not entirely, for the sake of the sermon." 
 
 " Well, in a school, where the head master can do as 
 he pleases, I should advise him to adopt my plan. Nor 
 would I readily allow any one except the head master 
 ever to preach to the school as a whole — I mean any one 
 on the staff. In boarding-schools where there are houses 
 the house-master could, if he pleased, make similar ad- 
 dresses to his own boys ; but I believe the addresses to 
 the whole school would gain in weight if it were dis- 
 tinctly understood that the head master was the repre- 
 sentative of the school as a whole, that he was speaking 
 as the mouthpiece of the tone of the whole school, and 
 that it was a privilege he could not delegate without to 
 some extent weakening his influence or neglecting his 
 duty. He is in the school the source of all honour and 
 all law ; instruction will come from his lips with far 
 more effect if this principle be understood than from any 
 other. And, moreover, I would say something more, that 
 he is probably at a disadvantage if he is in orders. Boys 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 95 
 
 are apt to treat the addresses of a clergyman merely as a 
 part of his professional duty, and accordingly to think 
 that while such laws as he expounds may be good for the 
 clergy, they do not much matter to the rest of mankind. 
 With a layman preaching there can be no such suspicion. 
 I would not, of course, say that a clergyman may not 
 produce quite as much effect as his lay brother; all I 
 mean is that he starts at a disadvantage. Character is 
 the foundation of a man's influence in every case, and in 
 time the clergyman may prove himself to have as power- 
 ful a character as the layman ; but I think the layman 
 may, with a rather weaker character, produce at once an 
 effect which a clergyman will take a little time to reach. 
 
 "Sunday observances hardly come within our sphere, 
 as we agreed at the outset that our ideal schools would be 
 day-schools ; but as a concession to the exigencies of the 
 world as it is, I should like to say here just one word or 
 two on what I consider are its opportunities, and the 
 best way of making use of them. I mean, of course, apart 
 from religion. To begin with, I should say that the 
 formal moral instruction can effectively be given to boys 
 on a Sunday, without in any way trenching upon the 
 religious aspects of the day. But services I would make 
 very short indeed, with a sermon as a great rarity. Nor 
 
 would I ever compel a boy to attend " 
 
 Here Mrs. Reynolds exclaimed in a horrified tone, " Mr. 
 Trelawney ! " 
 
 " No, I would not ; but I should take care that he was 
 well looked after if he did not choose to come, and not 
 allowed to spend his time just as he pleased. Moreover I 
 would have an abundance of music, sacred, and the higher 
 kinds of secular music, interspersed with the service, so 
 that the purely and directly devotional part would be 
 small. Boys, as a rule, are not capable of deep devotion, or 
 of a prolonged strain on the devotional feelings ; and in 
 those cases where a boy is so capable I should say, as a 
 rule, it would be better to try and control the tendency, as 
 there is a great danger that such people will become mor- 
 bid as they grow older. You need have no fear that you 
 will kill the religious instinct altogether. I would also 
 have some services almost entirely of music and readings, 
 from some of the great writers, with quite informal lee - 
 
196 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 tures occasionally combined — lectures under no very- 
 stringent regulations as to the subject that might be treated. 
 I would do anything possible to influence moral tone with- 
 out considering religion at all. And, throughout the day, 
 I should see that there was plenty of occupation so as to 
 kill that ennui which is so common among boys when 
 they are insufficiently occupied ; for it is out of the question 
 to make Sunday as other days. Debating societies and 
 science work I would also encourage, and the exploration 
 of the surrounding country, not in top-hats and Eton 
 jackets like so many unnaturally stunted men, but in such 
 attire that they would be able to look for plants, insects, 
 and stones, without a feeling of incongruity. I am afraid 
 my proposals would not be very acceptable ; but in this 
 case I think the end justifies the means, and the more we 
 break down the barrier of separation between ordinary 
 days and Sunday, the better I am sure it will be for the 
 world. 
 
 " Let me now turn to matters where the question of 
 religion cannot even be raised. Herbart, the great re- 
 former, whose ideas are at present so influential in Ger- 
 many, has advocated strongly the necessity of co-ordinat- 
 ing the whole of school education with a view to forwarding 
 one main end, and that a moral one. The proposal strikes 
 me as one of the greatest advances that have ever been 
 made in the theory of education. It is a truism to say 
 that everything we do has some effect or other, whether 
 for good or for evil, upon our character, and if it is possible 
 to choose our subjects of instruction in such a way as to 
 maintain a moral ideal, we shall be availing ourselves to 
 the utmost of the opportunities which are now too often 
 neglected. My own view is always that everything must 
 give way to moral considerations. To dwell upon the 
 moral side of steady intellectual work, to insist upon the 
 fact that accuracy in work is a moral virtue, and to be 
 emphasized as such, to draw out the more obvious bearings 
 upon character of the routine of school, both in work and 
 in play, can hardly be necessary here ; I think we may 
 take it for granted. But the acceptance of this point of 
 view leads to one or two corollaries which are often disre- 
 garded, and which I should like to accentuate in full. 
 The first of them is this, that if all our arrangements at 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 9/ 
 
 school have a moral aim, one of the prime factors in which 
 is the insistence upon punctuality and regular procedure, 
 then it follows that we must adhere with the utmost 
 possible strictness to whatever time-table we have laid 
 down ; if we expect our charges to be regular, we must be 
 regular ourselves, and not encroach, as is so often done, 
 upon the breaks for relaxation which the scheme has 
 taught children to expect as their right. We must 
 leave ojff our work to a minute, just as we begin it to a 
 minute. And I should like especially to condemn a 
 practice I have often observed, not least I am sorry to say 
 among head masters, of postponing their entrance into 
 a class-room till such times as suit their own personal 
 convenience. I am not speaking now of those occasions 
 on which a Head may be detained quite unavoidably, 
 though even then, as I shall explain in one minute, I think 
 it better he should go to his class-room at once and set 
 his boys to work, returning afterwards if necessary, but 
 of those occasions when, as I have known for a fact, he 
 has merely stayed talking or finishing a piece of work 
 about which there was no urgency whatever. Such con- 
 duct is a direct lesson in immorality. Accidents there 
 will be, no matter how strict our general rule ; but if boys 
 know that one is particular upon the point, they will see 
 that any divergence from rule is an unavoidable necessity. 
 Such excuses can but rarely affect an assistant-master, 
 and in his case such absences are the more to be con- 
 demned. I fear that many will say that a head master 
 will have a hard time if he cannot take things a little 
 more easily than when he was a subordinate. To that I 
 should reply that the greater the trust the greater the 
 responsibility ; the master is the servant, and the more 
 exalted his mastership, the more complete his servitude, 
 servitude to his office and servitude to his conscience. If 
 he wants an easier time, he should take a less responsible 
 post. It is no answer to urge that he is the fountain of 
 law, and that the sovereign source of law can unmake as 
 well as make. True that he can, but unmaking is dif- 
 ferent from disregarding a law in force, and if the sovereign 
 himself will not obey the laws laid down for the com- 
 munity, he cannot expect others to do the same. The best 
 stimulus to law-abiding is to abide by the law oneself. 
 
198 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 Irregularity of observance is fatal, especially in dealing 
 with those whose sense of law is as yet none too firmly 
 fixed." 
 
 " I will now take another point which springs from the 
 principle of regularity and accuracy which we agreed was 
 a truism a short time ago." 
 
 Here the Doctor interrupted me, saying : " What did 
 you mean, Trelawney, when you said just now that you 
 were going to explain another reason why it is better for 
 a Head, even if he is detained, to go to his class-room as 
 soon as a lesson begins, and then return to finish whatever 
 business he may have that is absolutely urgent ? I do 
 not see that very much is to be gained." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I forgot that point, and am glad that you re- 
 minded me. Surely, however, you can see that one point 
 at least is gained — he has some security that his boys are 
 at work, and not merely wasting their time. If he goes 
 up and sets them writing of some sort, he can easily check 
 them on his return, and see whether they have been merely 
 idling. In the case of a good school, however, despite the 
 natural frailty of boys, I do not think he will find it 
 essential to actually check them : my own experience has 
 been that boys like being occupied when properly handled, 
 and if set to work in school, even without supervision, 
 will start it with zeal when they have once passed the 
 stage of quite young boys. And even with these last I 
 have often found that industry is the predominant char- 
 acteristic. A few good boys in a class will, in this respect, 
 influence the whole. But that was not the special point 
 I had in my mind. It falls to the lot of a head master, 
 in the case of offences being committed, to investigate very 
 closely the sources of the mischief. Now when boys are 
 pressed, I have found the source of evil to lie — especially in 
 that matter which is so urgent, and I fear very common 
 among boys, evil-talking — in the few odd moments when 
 they are left to themselves during the absence of a master 
 from a room. This point, I think, I have mentioned 
 before. Large intervals of time are not half so productive 
 of evil as the fragments when a boy has nothing to 
 occupy him, and does not think it worth while to set about 
 anything serious. It is idleness which is the mother of 
 most evils at school ; by occupying idle moments we may 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 1 99 
 
 starve out great sins. Hence, if a master wlio has to be 
 absent from some unavoidable cause, will take care tbat 
 his boys have something to do, he will be aiding moral 
 training in a very material way, a way of which he 
 probably will have no suspicion till the matter is pointed 
 out to him. 
 
 " But now I will pass on to the point of which I was 
 going to treat when Dr. Hindley called me back. When 
 once it is fully recognised that accuracy and regularity of 
 work are moral virtues, I think we shall have done away 
 with the necessity of all artificial spurs, such as place- 
 taking and prize-giving, and, even from that point of view, 
 of that great impediment in the way of a rapid advance 
 in intellectual education — examinations. So far as these 
 practices are matters of stimulus, they are an open con- 
 fession of failure to teach practical morality. For my own 
 part I object to marking and prizes altogether. I re- 
 member in my own case, how, when a boy, I calculated 
 what were the most paying subjects, and threw all my 
 energies into them, caring little what happened to other 
 parts of my studies." 
 
 Here my friends laughed, and I was obliged to join, 
 while Mrs. Hindley said : " Well, really, Mr. Trelawney, 
 that is a confession to make. Are you not ashamed of 
 yourself showing such a mercenary spirit ? " 
 
 " Oh," I replied, " I can see the harm of it now on look- 
 ing back; but I do not consider the responsibility rests 
 with me, but with defective school arrangements. I was 
 fourteen at the time when, as I remember, I first worked 
 out the principle, and at that time I do not think I could 
 be altogether expected to realize the meanness involved. 
 Now a system which will lend itself to such a proceeding 
 I say is fatally defective. No doubt it would be possible 
 to arrange marks better, so that every subject should be 
 more on an equality than was the case at the time of which 
 I am speaking ; but it requires an immense amount of 
 labour — labour to my thinking quite lost. It is well-nigh 
 impossible to allot the same number of marks to a subject 
 which has but one hour as to one which has two. Yet 
 that ought to be the case to avoid leading to an evil like 
 that I have mentioned. But further, there is another 
 very grave error too. It is commonly urged that marks 
 
2CX) MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 are a stimulus. It is true they are a stimulus to one or two 
 boys, especially those who are near the top, but the mass 
 of boys they leave quite unaiFected, and I have known cases 
 where they have been to the dull a very pronounced and 
 bitter discouragement. I have in my thoughts at this 
 moment one boy of exceptional dullness, who yet was a 
 fairly steady worker, but rarely, if ever, got above the 
 bottom place. One day he said to me in a tone of complete 
 despair, not unmixed with bitterness : ' Whatever I do, 
 sir, I shall never get any higher.' And what could I say? 
 I knew the facts to be as he stated, and here he was in 
 danger of losing all self-confidence and becoming cynical 
 besides simply because of defective school arrangements. 
 The harm done to that boy no amount of gain to the 
 better boys could outweigh ; and the more so when we 
 remember that it is usually those boys who are most 
 stimulated by marks, who really require no extra stimulus 
 at all. The result of the system is, I fear, that we do not 
 exert ourselves as much as we might to stimulate boys by 
 nobler methods. And we encourage by the system im- 
 morality in two ways. In the first place we teach boys 
 that they ought to measure their own worth and that of 
 others by comparing themselves with those who have been 
 more or less highly gifted by nature, basing comparison of 
 personal merit on endowments in which there is no merit 
 at all. For I should like to ask any schoolmaster how 
 often he finds that the top place in a class, in a small 
 school especially, is due to sheer hard work, and not in the 
 main to superiority of natural gifts. Yet surely the only 
 way to judge of moral worth, which should be the aim of 
 such classification of boys, is to compare a boy not with 
 others, when the terms of the comparison are not equal to 
 begin with, but with himself in the past and himself only. 
 Tor at school our desire is not to fix moral worth as it will 
 be judged at the end of a man's life, but to elicit whatever 
 power of effort there may be, in the hope that moral 
 growth may be great and lasting. And, as for urging 
 that marks are chiefly for intellectual ends, what does it 
 matter whether we arrange boys according to their in- 
 tellectual powers or not? School is but a transition 
 period, and to stamp a boy as better than others, because 
 his intellectual powers ai'^ greater, is of a piece with that 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 201 
 
 absurd worship of the intellect which has led to our aw- 
 ful sacrifices at the shrine of examinations and the incul- 
 cation in the popular mind, through the deadly system of 
 our elementary schools, of the belief that the power to 
 pass examinations makes a man. And this very considera- 
 tion brings me to the second way in which the system 
 encourages immorality. Not merely does it set up a false 
 standard of what constitutes merit, but it is a direct in- 
 centive to vanity, and is thus likely to materially harm 
 many a boy in his after-life. Who does not know the 
 unfortunate boy, who being exceptionally gifted with 
 intellectual ability, finds that he can retain the headship 
 of his class without effort, and so never falls under the 
 ennobling influence of hard work ? And what will such a 
 boy be likely to do when he goes out into the world, where 
 the prizes are more to the hard-workers, and where pure 
 intellectual powers, as regards getting on, are almost at a 
 discount ? Power that is practical and hard work are the 
 ruling factors in what is called success in life ; the in- 
 tellect counts for but little, at least the intellect as we 
 consider it at school ; hence, many a hard knock and 
 bitter disappointment awaits the youth who thinks that, 
 because he has carried everything before him at school 
 owing to his greater intellectual endowments, he is there- 
 fore to be worshipped by every one hereafter. No, it is 
 character that tells in life, not brain, save in special pur- 
 suits ; it should, therefore, be character we should consider 
 first of all, even in our excessively intellectual system. 
 Our prizes should be given, if they are to be given at all, 
 not necessarily to the head boy of a class, but to that 
 one who has shown most devotion to his work, and who 
 has made the best of whatever powers, no matter how poor, 
 he may have received at his birth. The impossibility of 
 ever carrying out such a system would soon prove the 
 absurdity of prizes altogether, even if the English public, 
 with its rooted mistrust of any one who cannot show that 
 he can account for the trust imposed in him by a practical 
 reckoning of its outcome in £ s. cZ., once allowed us the 
 chance of disposing of the prizes on what we might con- 
 sider the fairest method. You can imagine the outcry of 
 the British parent when told that his Tommy, who was 
 top of the class, had not received the prize, but that it had 
 
202 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 gone to his neighbour's Willie, who, though bottom, had 
 worked harder than any one else ! But till your parent is 
 willing to trust his schoolmasters, you will never have a 
 system of education which shall aim more at moral than 
 at purely intellectual ends." 
 
 *' My dear," said my wife, " I knew you were strong on 
 the system of marks, but I did not know you were also 
 bitter. Don't you wish you had been a woman ? " 
 
 " Well, in the presence of so many ladies, and especially 
 in answer to you, my dear, I am afraid it might be rude to 
 say just what I feel on that question ; so I will content 
 myself with saying I have not yet seen the advantage — 
 though, of course, I am open to conviction. But why did 
 you ask ? " 
 
 "Because, had you been a schoolmistress, you would 
 have found the system you condemn far less prevalent ; 
 girls' schools are largely free from the evil thing." 
 
 *' Yes, I know ; it is another point in which you can 
 teach us so much. But I fear there is no one so unteach- 
 able at present as your average British schoolmaster." 
 
 " Ah," said the Doctor, " I remember your saying some- 
 thing like that before, when I put in a claim for the 
 doctors." 
 
 " I think," said Reynolds, " I might also claim for the 
 clergy at least a right of consideration in any competition 
 for this great distinction " — a remark at which we all 
 laughed, while the Doctor went on : — 
 
 " Well, I don't think we will dispute on the question. 
 It reminds me of a remark I once heard that everybody 
 is a radical in his own profession. I'm afraid it is not 
 true; the world would progress faster if it were. But 
 what I was going to say was this, that the mark system 
 has always been a puzzle to me, and I am glad to hear a 
 strong attack upon it. I can understand that there are 
 certain arguments in its favour, but they seem to me an 
 illustration of the fact of which history furnishes so many 
 examples, that the superficial arguments are by no means 
 always good. I know from my own observation that in 
 the German schools, for instance, marks are practically non- 
 existent, to say nothing of prizes and place-taking. I fear 
 our practice is but another illustration of the terribly mer- 
 cenary spirit which pervades everything we English do." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 203 
 
 "Yes, I feel that too, but you must remember," I went 
 on, " that the Germans have behind them the great 
 stimulus of the conscription. Still, I am convinced our 
 system is wrong in itself, and, further, that if we could 
 but carry out our proposed reforms, and base the whole of 
 education more effectively upon love, and develop a liking 
 for the subjects taught by teaching more rational things, 
 and in a more rational way, we should find it not merely 
 wrong, but absolutely superfluous. 
 
 " A third corollary which follows from our principle of 
 regularity is, that we must have one definite aim running 
 throughout the whole of our lessons, which should, during 
 all of a child's course at school, be a continuous develop- 
 ment from a comparatively simple beginning to an elabor- 
 ate whole. Each class must denote one step in advance, 
 and each lesson, too, a step in organic connection with 
 what has preceded it. We must have what the Germans 
 call a definite Lehrplan, and not merely a piece of tesse- 
 lated pavement, such as we usually mean when we speak 
 of a time-table. It is obvious that to get at such a plan 
 we must have a thorough knowledge, both theoretical and 
 practical, of psychology. I am not sure that we have 
 made it clear enough, hitherto, that no effective training, 
 in the best sense, can be given, on the side of ethics as 
 well as on the side of the intellectual and physical develop- 
 ment of the child, without a systematic study of the theory 
 of education on the part of the trainer. And I say this, not 
 at all overlooking the fact that one of the most valuable 
 incentives to a high moral tone on the part of the young 
 is the character of their trainers, and the love and ad- 
 miration which they may feel for those who are trying to 
 guide them aright. Even the noblest of characters is liable 
 to err, but his liability to error will be far less if he knows 
 thoroughly from the abstract side the kind of material 
 with which he has to deal. He will be able to correct his 
 mistakes, and only under such conditions will he be able 
 to make scientific experiments, and verify them, seeing 
 truly their bearing upon practice. Theoretical knowledge, 
 too, will keep him on the alert, and prevent him becoming 
 hidebound with empirical rules, which may help for a time, 
 but which, not being founded upon scientific induction, 
 are always liable to break down in the presence of an 
 
204 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 exception. And when we consider the complicated char- 
 acter of the material with which the educator has to deal, 
 who will be so bold as to say that those exceptions will be 
 rare ? Surely education is the only science in the world 
 in which the professional exponents would be so bold as to 
 declare — and surely England is the only country in the 
 forefront of civilization where such an assertion would be 
 possible — that practice is everything, and theory worth- 
 less. But the point I wish to make in especial, at present, 
 is that this abstract knowledge is of as much value in the 
 sphere of morals as in the sphere of the intellect. And I 
 do not now mean by abstract knowledge a knowledge so 
 much of ethical theory as a knowledge of psychology, 
 physiological and otherwise. What we have to get at is 
 the power of noting instances and drawing from them 
 strict scientific generalizations, together with that fresh- 
 ness and elasticity of mind which permits one to be con- 
 stantly throwing away false inductions for the sake of 
 truer ones, and modifying one's practice in the light of 
 greater knowledge. In the schoolmaster's profession, 
 above all, is such elasticity desirable, and to be fostered by 
 every means in our power, inasmuch as, owing to the con- 
 ditions under which he works, the schoolmaster is liable to 
 become more the slave of routine than probably any other 
 man who occupies so responsible a position. The harm 
 done by error and mistakes in practice is often so subtle, 
 and the outcome of it often so long delayed, that it may 
 either be not apparent at all save to a very minute examina- 
 tion, or it may show itself at a time when the child has 
 passed away entirely from our control, when the school- 
 master has altogether lost sight of him, so that he has no 
 opportunity of reflecting on what are the real losses he 
 has caused the child to sufifer. And how can we hope to 
 get over this difficulty save by studying our profession in 
 theory, and making minute and systematic observations ? 
 "But enough now on the value of scientific training for 
 the teacher in the theory of his profession. I return once 
 more to the question of a Lehrplan. How many head 
 masters, when constructing their time-table, think of any- 
 thing else than fitting in the number of subjects which 
 their scheme, or the public for whom they cater, demands, 
 or so arranging it as to give the maximum of time to 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 20$ 
 
 those particular subjects which will pay best in some ex- 
 amination for which they enter the unfortunate children ? 
 And here is another evil of examinations : a schoolmaster 
 has to sacrifice his own ideas of what is best in the ab- 
 stract in education— supposing indeed he has such ideas 
 at all — in order to comply with the requirements of a 
 syllabus drawn up in many cases by those who have no 
 theoretical knowledge of what true education demands, 
 and even if they have that, have no practical experience 
 of what are the real mental powers of children at the age 
 when they present themselves. It is a question of sub- 
 jects, subjects, subjects, not as it should be of mind, mind, 
 mind. In any case such examinations cannot adapt them- 
 selves to the conditions of particular schools : they intro- 
 duce a cast-iron system which it becomes almost impos- 
 sible to amend, and which suffers not merely from that 
 very great disadvantage in itself, but from another not 
 less grave — the tendency to absolutely kill all considera- 
 tion for individuality. Now if there is one point on which 
 the teacher should consider he is under a law of the most 
 imperative character, it is in regard to individuality. 
 The whole tendency of civilization at present is to grind 
 down every one into one mould; but it is a relic of 
 savagery which cannot stand divergence from the common 
 t3rpe, and the real hope for advance lies in the difference 
 of individuals : as John Stuart Mill says somewhere, I 
 think, ' Variety is the soul of life.' The fostering of in- 
 dividuality in both morals and intellect should be the 
 great aim of the teacher : who knows but that it may lead 
 to the production of a genius ? I do not think I need go 
 over the points I could enumerate in which we sin against 
 psychology in our ordinary education. Even when we 
 grant that in certain subjects a more or less co-ordinated 
 system of study is pursued, still it is rarely even there 
 that it follows the natural order of development, as, to 
 take one glaring instance, is seen in the habit of beginning 
 a language by teaching the grammar first. A more 
 pestilential heresy I think I do not know, yet its power 
 in England is almost universal. But I will not go into 
 the matter in full, as the details belong rather to in- 
 tellectual education. I will only add one other point, 
 which is that even where a subject in isolation has had a 
 
206 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 careful sclieme of treatment devised for it, its organic con- 
 nection with the other branches of study pursued has 
 often never been considered, still less have we aimed at so 
 arranging matters that the mental development fostered 
 shall be a direct help to morality." 
 
VIII 
 
 HERE Reynolds stopped me and remarked : — 
 " I was going to say, Trelawney, but your last obser- 
 vation has almost cut the ground from under my feet, that 
 much of what you have now been saying seems to have 
 little or nothing to do with what is our special subject of 
 enquiry — moral education. You appear to have run off to 
 the intellectual. Now I know you will say that every 
 
 branch of education affects every other " 
 
 " No," I said, " I was not going to take that line." 
 " But," went on Reynolds, " while I grant that, it seems 
 to me there are limits. And if you were not going to 
 take your stand on that ground, I should like to hear what 
 your answer will be." 
 
 "This," I said. "During my last remarks I have 
 been thinking of Herbart who insists most strongly upon 
 the fact that what he calls the whole body of thought, in- 
 cluding in the term all individual experience and the 
 summed experience of the race as a whole, — I hope I am 
 expressing his views rightly: it is always a ticklish 
 matter to put in our own words the thoughts of a subtle 
 and careful thinker, — that this whole body of thought is 
 the main element in forming the good will on which the 
 production of a moral character really depends. He binds 
 up together in the closest union intellectual and moral 
 education, and it seems to me that he is right in so doing. 
 Hence I say it is of vital importance that your intellectual 
 education be an organized whole, and organized not merely 
 in such a way as to secure the natural and regular de- 
 velopment of the intellectual powers, but also so as to 
 secure the development of morality as its final end. If 
 our intellectual instruction be haphazard, we arethrownig 
 
 207 
 
208 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 away a great support to morality. The view is a subtle 
 one, and though I think it would be easy to press it too 
 far, still its great importance in the history of recent 
 education must be my excuse for thus dwelling upon it 
 now. I may have gone rather more fully than was 
 necessary into the purely intellectual matters raised by 
 the theory, but I think it is desirable to emphasize too 
 much rather than not enough those points which are most 
 readily overlooked. For further details and applications I 
 would refer you to Herbart's own writings, especially the 
 Allgemeine Paedagogik. Herbart is very strong on the 
 point which I should think we should all concede^ that in 
 the long run moral advance must be the pupil's own work : 
 the teacher's business is to make the conditions most 
 favourable for securing that advance without interrup- 
 tion. 
 
 *'But there is one point which this argument has sug- 
 gested to me that I should like specifically to name and 
 it is this : we must be most careful what books we allow 
 the young to read in literature, in science what experi- 
 ments we allow them to perform. Nothing must be ad- 
 mitted which has a bad moral tendency, and in the case of 
 literature I would go further and say that our choice 
 should be such works as will directly tend to foster a 
 sense of duty, a love of right, and, above all, a liking and 
 consideration for the rest of mankind, particularly those 
 in a more unfavourable position than ourselves. A vast 
 deal more than is usual might be done in this direction. 
 Mere literary beauty will go far to purifying the mind, 
 but when we can combine with that, as we can in number- 
 less instances, the inculcation of virtues of different 
 kinds, especially those which at any given stage the child 
 is most capable of appreciating, why should we not do so ? 
 Tales of cruelty and wrong should, above all, be avoided, 
 unless the moral at the end is so clear that the child will 
 come away with a feeling of hatred for the wrong-doer. 
 And in history especially I would have the teacher point 
 out the utterly indefensible nature on any moral ground 
 of a great number of the acts there related and passed 
 without a comment, especially in the matter of wars and 
 the seizure of other people's territory : even though his 
 judgment may in some cases be wrong, it is better 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 209 
 
 occasionally to condemn unjustly than to let the child go 
 away with the idea that a different code of morality 
 should prevail among States from that which obtains 
 among private individuals. 
 
 " Yet another corollary follows from our principle of 
 regularity. Every lesson itself must be an organized 
 whole and further must lie in organic connection with 
 what has preceded and with what is to follow it. Here 
 again you may say I am treating a purely intellectual 
 matter, but I do not think so. Granted that our in- 
 tellectual training is one step to morality, it is important 
 that every step should mark a steady advance. Now if 
 each lesson is a flabby unorganized mass of facts, we can- 
 not expect that the child's mind will feel itself advantaged 
 or that it will go away profited as regards the ultimate 
 end : we shall produce a feeling of chaos, which is even 
 worse for morals than for the intellect. Doubtless this 
 treatment of a lesson is not an easy matter, and it requires 
 elaborate preparation on the part of the teacher ; but here, 
 I think we shall find of use the principle laid down by 
 the Doctor at the beginning, that the teacher must have 
 an abundance of leisure. Certain I am that due prepara- 
 tion and regular co-ordination of work in this way, both 
 in the larger groups and in individual lessons, will do much 
 towards impressing upon a child's mind the value of 
 order and system and a hatred of anything like work 
 scamped : and how large a constituent of a high morality 
 these two feelings are, I hardly think I need declare. 
 
 " There is yet another point which the desire for regu- 
 larity has suggested to me, though here I should not like 
 to be dogmatic: the question as to the desirability or 
 otherwise of one master in the main always having 
 under his control the same set of boys. I am not thinking 
 now of the system of form-masters as opposed to masters 
 of subjects, but rather of the system, common I believe 
 in Scotland, of a master travelling up the school with his 
 form. The gain, of course, lies in the fact that by this 
 means the boys are kept almost entirely under the control 
 of one man who will therefore be able to exert a constantly 
 developing influence upon their character. He has more 
 chance of training them on a reasoned system than if they 
 are handed over from time to time to quite fresh masters. 
 
 P 
 
210 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 On the other hand, two considerations may be urged. The 
 first is that it is good for every one to have experience 
 of characters of different sorts, and if our schoolmasters 
 are to be, as we agreed at first, the picked men, then the 
 divergencies of character will not affect the fundamental 
 points of morality : all the men will in essentials act up 
 to the same standard of morality, and all of them will be 
 gifted with great moral earnestness. Secondly, if the 
 school be organized on a real moral system, so that the 
 ethical training is as regular and systematic and based 
 upon psychological laws as much as the intellectual, then 
 the system may be carried on from year to year, even 
 though the children are passing through different hands. 
 The infirmity of human nature may come in our way, but 
 that is a difficulty we shall always be liable to encounter : 
 apart from that it seems to me that, compliance with our 
 conditions being granted, we have not so much to gain 
 from keeping boys always under the management of one 
 man. And further I would say that we are all of us 
 liable, even with the most accurate system, to be guilty of 
 unintentional oversights: these can be corrected, and 
 would probably be so quite spontaneously, by transferring 
 the children to fresh hands. 
 
 " In boarding-schools, if I may touch again on present 
 arrangements, the difficulty is no doubt met by the system 
 of house-masters. Their special business is to follow a 
 boy throughout the whole of his school course, and thus 
 an opportunity is presented for systematic watching and 
 careful training of the moral character. It would be good 
 if the system were more generally extended to day-schools 
 as well. It is easy there also to group boys into houses, 
 each in charge of a master ; and though I do not alto- 
 gether approve of the fostering of great rivalry between 
 these different organizations, I cannot shut my eyes to the 
 fact that an immense gain attends upon the development 
 of a corporate influence and feeling and the entrusting 
 of each boy to the special supervision of one master, who 
 thus has opportunities for advice and help which might 
 not present themselves spontaneously. But on the other 
 question of masters going up with their forms, I am not 
 quite so certain, though one may perhaps regard it as 
 merely a variation upon the system of houses. I am, how- 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 211 
 
 ever, inclined to think that the variation and change will 
 give interest ; but I say it merely as a personal view, and 
 am quite open to conviction the other way. 
 
 " Before I pass entirely from the question of regularity 
 and the points it suggests, I would refer to another 
 practice which seems to me to border on dishonesty — the 
 practice of throwing over time-table arrangements when 
 examinations press, in order, as it is called, to cram up 
 for the last. If it is not actual dishonesty, it certainly 
 tempts boys to think that they can make up for earlier lazi- 
 ness by hard work then, and also fosters the noxious idea, 
 noxious both mentally and morally, that the aim of educa- 
 tion is to make a show. Erom every point of view the 
 practice deserves the severest condemnation: it teaches 
 that law is a matter of convenience instead of something 
 absolutely unswerving. I cannot say too strongly how 
 vast an influence for evil such a practice may have, but 
 with this final condemnation I think we may now leave 
 our great doctrine of regularity to take care of itself. 
 
 " There still remain many points to which I should like 
 to advert, and many which I shall be obliged not to men- 
 tion at all. I have sought rather to lay down general 
 maxims with certain illustrations, than to go thoroughly 
 over the whole ground, partly because it would be im- 
 possible to avoid letting some points escape me, partly 
 because those who have been properly trained will, when 
 once they have the principle, be able to trace out its many 
 ramifications, partly also because I am anxious that we 
 should always bear in mind that every branch of educa- 
 tion is one continuous whole, and that, though much that 
 I have been saying applies primarily, as I have put it, to 
 education at school, yet the vast mass of it is simply the 
 application of principles which can be used equally well 
 for every stage. It was from my desire to have this fact 
 kept in mind that I made the precepts as general as might 
 be. Eor the rest I will try to be brief, and if I sometimes 
 lay down a rule categorically, I do so because I am sure 
 you will be able to see its reason and bearing without 
 further enlightenment. 
 
 "The first point I would make is one drawn from Pro- 
 fessor Adler. Explain clearly what is the influence upon 
 moral development of all the studies and school arrange- 
 
212 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 ments througli which the children are made to pass. I 
 quite feel that this point is far too much neglected, though 
 it would assist materially both in fostering readiness to 
 work, and also in developing faith in the foresight and 
 goodness of the masters. It is a simple lesson in moral 
 ratiocination, where no harm is likely to accrue. Further 
 we must, above all things, be careful ourselves never to lose 
 temper for one moment, never to show scorn or contempt, 
 no matter what a child may have done, and never under 
 any provocation whatsoever to indulge in satire. I am 
 not sure whether in dealing with children I would even 
 admit what is known as righteous indignation. The 
 weakness of children's wills has always to be remembered, 
 and moral indignation seems to me a weapon it is only 
 right to use when dealing with those whose wills are well 
 set. It may be right in dealing with boys of seventeen or 
 eighteen sometimes, but with children under fifteen I should 
 say never. And this weakness of their wills suggests 
 to me another point — that it is very easy to misinterpret 
 their acts and to be severe upon what is but a childish 
 outbreak. We often make into faults what are really 
 none and embitter the child by so doing, as he 
 thinks himself unjustly treated. I would always allow 
 children all possible liberty, and for this reason would not 
 lay down such ridiculous rules as that they must not in 
 playtime run up and down stairs or make a noise in the 
 building, if others are at work and it causes incon- 
 venience. I would point it out and appeal rather than 
 command, and though the child may forget again a few 
 minutes afterwards, yet this training in self-control by a 
 voluntary act is far more valuable than a passive obedi- 
 ence to a command, and if we are really devoted to the 
 children and not merely to our own convenience, it is 
 surely worth the extra trouble and annoyance to ourselves. 
 As for the fault itself, if fault it can be called, it will be 
 dropped in the course of natural development ; and, as I 
 think we have already said, it is an egregious waste of 
 energy, to say nothing of unnecessary friction and chafing 
 of nervous power, if we are going to try and correct at an 
 early and unnatural age those faults which will soon out- 
 grow themselves. One thing is certain, a child's life may 
 be made miserable by constant correction of trifling faults 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 21 3 
 
 -which in themselves are not morally wrong at all, only- 
 thoughtless and inconvenient to us." 
 
 " But don't you think," said Mrs. Reynolds, " that it is 
 our duty to put a check on such outbursts of animal 
 spirits and similar proceedings in order to teach consid- 
 eration for others ? " 
 
 *'I certainly think they present an admirable oppor- 
 tunity of teaching consideration for others, but I hold the 
 best way to secure that consideration is not by punish- 
 ing for mere thoughtlessness, but by explaining to a child 
 the annoyance caused, and, if I know children at all, the 
 mass of them will at once try to carry out the suggestions 
 put before them. And if they do not, we can take advan- 
 tage later of some opportunity when the child wants 
 quiet, to go on our own way despite his remonstrances, 
 carefully pointing out that we are treating him as he 
 treated us. That would be once more in accordance with 
 Herbert Spencer's theory of natural punishments. Despite 
 a certain appearance of cruelty and selfishness, I think 
 that educationally the practice is sound. 
 
 "Another case where advice is morally better than com- 
 pulsion is in the matter of taking notes. Never compel 
 boys to do so, only advise them and point out the advan- 
 tages that accrue. Devise means also to prove hereafter 
 that your estimate of the value of taking notes is a true 
 one. By constant exposition of the reasons for our actions 
 on such lines as these we shall be enforcing that principle 
 to which the Doctor long since assigned such cardinal 
 importance, — the necessity of teaching the young to realize 
 the doctrine of far-reaching, may we not say unending, 
 responsibility? In everything that is done the effects 
 should be clearly pointed out : the near effects first, and 
 then the trains of reasoning brought into prominence 
 whereby the remote effects, which so often decide the real 
 Talue of an action, may be clearly perceived. Thus we 
 may hope to lead to a habit of never acting without care- 
 ful thought, and if we have given this habit at school, I 
 think school will have conferred the greatest gift upon its 
 inmates that lies within its power. 
 
 " Take care that everything be done really well. So we 
 accentuate the sacredness of work. I remember being 
 struck when reading Pestalozzi's life by an anecdote about 
 
214 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 his training of his son. In his diary appears an entry- 
 something to this effect : ' My boy held his pen rightly 
 to-day : by God's help I will never allow him to hold it 
 wrongly again.' That is the true spirit, the spirit which 
 sees even in trifles a high moral discipline. Always let 
 there be plenty of activity, and always maintain a cheerful 
 tone ; activity and cheerfulness are the two great protec- 
 tors from evil dispositions and evil acts. By activity, 
 however, I do not necessarily mean that you are to pre- 
 scribe tasks ; only put the boy where something can be done, 
 often, perhaps most often, of his own choosing, and you are 
 doing right. He will not resent suggestions from you. 
 And after all much of what we usually call mischief is, 
 from the boy's point of view, activity and really healthy 
 activity. Troebel dwells in most explicit terms upon the 
 value of an activity that produces some definite external 
 result : such work has a moral influence of the highest 
 value, and should be enjoined upon all from prince to 
 peasant. The modern development of Sloyd is an impor- 
 tant move in this direction. 
 
 "Let children of all classes be trained together. Not 
 merely shall we thus get rid of snobbery, but we shall 
 have direct opportunities of insisting on that virtue to 
 which I attach as much importance as to any — a feeling 
 of real communion with others, no matter how different in 
 surroundings from ourselves, a power to put ourselves in 
 their place, a genuine fellow-feeling, the only true basis 
 of real charity. To attain this feeling thoroughly, it is 
 necessary to train also the conceptive faculties and the 
 imagination ; but with that aspect at present I am not 
 concerned. I will only say that this feeling of real 
 charity is, to my thinking, the crown of all social life. 
 
 "Arnold, I remember, has a caution somewhere against a 
 kind of action which is very natural and common, and which 
 yet, as he shows, may lead to grave harm. He says that 
 we should never force a boy to do an act which, though 
 right in itself, would be done by him from a wrong 
 motive. Were that caution the only fact we knew about 
 Arnold, it would sufficiently establish his lofty position as 
 a moral trainer. It shows a depth of insight not often 
 found among us, content as we are to enforce the right act 
 without any regard to the spirit behind it. And yet 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 21 5 
 
 surely morally the spirit is everything : with a \vrong 
 spirit even an externally good act becomes evil. The 
 difficulty arises from our not always realizing the principle 
 which every educator should always have in mind, that 
 the code which applies to men requires modifications with 
 children : we have to feed them first on milk, before they 
 can swallow our strong meat. And I think under the 
 same head would naturally come the two principles before 
 mentioned — that of never forcing a child to an act which 
 he considers wrong, though it may be perfectly right in 
 itself ; and secondly, of never forcing an apology for a 
 misdeed : it will come spontaneously from a child of high 
 moral principle, but if suggested its value is entirely 
 gone; while if offered as an alternative to some other 
 punishment, — on a system which admits of punishments 
 at all, — not merely has it lost its moral value, but it has 
 become distinctly harmful — a virtue converted into a 
 bribe. 
 
 " Remember that mere ignorance of evil has itself 
 dangers, and when considering how far it is wise to keep 
 children away from contact with it, adopt as a rule the 
 middle course, opening their eyes to make them see under 
 such conditions as are sure to lead to a right choice. It is 
 wrong to spring upon a child suddenly a mass of evil 
 of which before he has had no conception. Hence if ever it 
 is necessary to send children away to school, I hold it to 
 be one of the father's most imperative duties to utter a 
 word of warning as to the evils he may find, of which he 
 previously had no knowledge. Virtue is not innocence 
 due to ignorance of wrong, but innocence due to rejection 
 of it. And the choice we may thus put before a child has 
 suggested to me another matter, in which we may offer a 
 choice and so avail ourselves of small openings for the 
 exercise of will. There are numberless cases where the 
 will comes into play where morality is not directly 
 involved ; but so far as they carry an appeal to volition, 
 so far they are of help in moral training. I mean such 
 cases as those where a child is offered a choice between 
 two seats, or between a red pencil and a black one, or 
 between two kinds of nibs, or between copying a poem or 
 a piece of prose, and the like. There are plenty of boys 
 who will say they do not mind, but such an attitude 
 
2l6 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 should never be allowed to pass; tell them they must 
 choose and at last they do so, and thus take a forward 
 step in making up their minds. Let the children, in 
 short, decide as many things as possible. And again we 
 can give them a number of small offices to discharge — 
 monitorships, setting up the blackboard, and the like; 
 such offices are good training in thoughtfulness and 
 neatness, and, to a certain extent, also in self-sacrifice. 
 De Quincey, I remember, has in one of his essays — let me 
 see; I think it is in the first volume of the works 
 collected after his death by Hogg ; it is just at your 
 elbow Doctor, I see; do you mind giving it me? — Ah, 
 yes, here it is, in the essay called ' Education.' It is 
 a review of a book giving a curious and interesting 
 account of an experiment made by some one who leaves 
 himself unknown, of throwing the vast mass of the 
 discipline of a school into the hands of the boys themselves. 
 There were magistrates, judges, juries, and the laws were 
 laid down by a committee of boys and enforced by them- 
 selves acting as courts of law. There was a recognised 
 series of punishments, and, from another point of view, of 
 rewards also. The narrator, if De Quincey may be 
 trusted, speaks in the highest terms of the results of the 
 system, and, above all, of its moral efiect. Those who 
 have read the account will, I am sure, agree with him, 
 despite the great difficulties there would be in starting 
 such a system. The plan would be but a natural, though 
 most valuable, extension of our present half-hearted 
 attempts to make boys responsible for the discipline by 
 giving them monitorial powers. We have already dis- 
 cussed the great disadvantages attaching to our present 
 monitorial system ; the plan of governing as a country is 
 governed seems to me to get over the difficulty, as public 
 opinion in the school is at the back of the rulers, and 
 every boy may be connected more or less directly with 
 the system of administration. Moreover, an appeal being 
 allowed shows that the chance of a wrongful conviction 
 is likely to be small. As a pi-actical example of what 
 may be done towards reducing absolute to self government, 
 I do not think the value of the essay can be overrated. 
 Whether the original work is procurable, I do not know; 
 I have never seen it. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 21/ 
 
 " A variation on the monitorial system is the practice 
 -which Dr. Arnold adopted of putting a boy in charge, as 
 it were, of another — making him a kind of elder brother, 
 specially interested in that boy's well-being. Such a 
 system when carefully worked and with a full knowledge of 
 the characters of the two boys involved, can hardly be pro- 
 ductive of anything but good, both to the elder and to the 
 younger, especially as regards its steadying influence upon 
 the former. The great objection to the monitorial system 
 — its likelihood to develop a kind of priggishness and to 
 lead, unless the monitor is very judicious, to a certain 
 amount of resentment on the part of other boys, besides 
 the great strain it imposes on one's force of will — entirely 
 disappears in this other case. Here the younger boy 
 has a guide to whom he can go, especially in those 
 difficulties for which it should be our main aim to provide, 
 cases where there is doubt as to the right course, or 
 where the temptation to evil is so strong that it can 
 hardly be overcome without encouragement from outside. 
 Masters cannot always mark such cases for themselves ; 
 yet it is here, above all, that most good will be effected, if 
 only we can discover the difficulty, or if the boy has such 
 confidence in us that he will of himself solicit our help. 
 However this is a case comparatively rare ; we have in most 
 cases ourselves to lead the boy on. But full confidence is 
 common between boy and boy ; so that in this respect our 
 deficiencies may be supplied by such a kind of monitor- 
 friend. No doubt consultation will be most often adopted 
 in those cases of moral action which fall under the 
 comparatively subordinate head of prudential actions, but 
 not so always ; circumstances will arise where deliberation 
 is required even in grave moral matters. By adopting 
 this line of procedure, too, w^e shall have a chance of 
 cultivating the noble sense of chivalry, particularly when 
 a small and feeble boy is put under the wing of one who 
 is strong and able to hold his own. Of course, the 
 character of the strong boy must also include those finer 
 elements to which the sense of chivalry will appeal ; but 
 this is a matter of observation and insight for the master. 
 Frequently those feelings are latent, and can only be 
 effectively stirred by a method such as that I have 
 adopted from Dr. Arnold. 
 
21 8 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " There is one other matter which to me always presents 
 great difficulty, and I am afraid I shall horrify you by 
 the view to which I incline — the matter which boys, 
 expressively call 'sneaking.' It is perhaps the case 
 where the boyish code of morality comes most directly into 
 conflict with our views as men. A boy's idea of sneaking 
 is very comprehensive, and covers everything from the 
 telling of a trifling fault to the answering of questions put 
 by a master, or the reporting of serious moral delin- 
 quencies. It is curious that the feeling does not seem to 
 exist among children in the elementary schools at all. Is 
 it a right feeling to encourage or not ? I shall run 
 counter, I am afraid, to the general set of opinion, when I 
 say that a master ought to try and upset the code which 
 boys ordinarily observe on this matter. I do so on the 
 ground that it is impossible for a school to be healthily 
 organized when the aim of a boy's conscience is to protect 
 those who are known to have broken the law. And by 
 analogy I would say that in ordinary life it is our duty 
 to take far more active measures to secure the punishment 
 of evil-doers than is generally the case. Until we have 
 in public a higher sentiment on this question, I can 
 quite understand the strong feeling that the boy's attitude 
 towards sneaking is the correct one. But surely that 
 attitude implies mistrust of the masters — it is a fostering 
 of the old, most deadly idea that the master is the natural 
 enemy of his boys. No doubt the monitorial system may 
 obviate some of the difficulty, and so far it is a gain ; but 
 I think we want to go much further. The ideal thing 
 would of course be that an offender should be willing 
 to give up his own name when challenged, or better still, 
 in grave cases, without challenge ; but, until our moral 
 nature is much nearer to perfection than at present, I fear 
 such a consummation is more to be wished than attained. 
 It is reached, I am glad to say, that is the former alter- 
 native, not unfrequently ; yet by no means always. Now 
 in such cases I say that it is the duty of every boy to 
 disregard the claims of an individual schoolfellow and 
 have regard solely to the welfare of the school as one 
 corporate body. Of course, distinctions must be drawn. 
 To have boys reporting every little offence, such perhaps 
 as climbing a forbidden tree, would, of course, be un- 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 2ig 
 
 desirable; the public tone of the school should be a 
 sufficient check in such matters; but in the case of 
 offences of a really grave nature, where the mere occur- 
 rence of the oifence is a proof sufficient that the tone of 
 the school has not prevented a boy disgracing himself and 
 his fellows, and where the act as an example may have 
 serious results for evil, then I say a boy of truly high tone 
 will report the matter of his own accord, if he cannot in- 
 duce the offender to voluntarily confess. And in such cases 
 I would have the master explain clearly to the school that 
 the reporter was discharging a most unpleasant and 
 difficult duty, but that it was a duty which he owed 
 to every one, and that each individual boy, not excluding 
 the offender himself, would have had just cause of com- 
 plaint had he allowed the tone of the school to be lowered 
 by winking at such a grave offence, and so becoming 
 himself an indirect accomplice. If attention is drawn to 
 the corresponding point of view of statute law, the boys, I 
 think, will be easily convinced, or at least the riper-minded 
 from whom the influence will spread. After all as in the 
 case of so much else with boys, their views upon sneaking 
 are largely an unthinking tradition, and my own obser- 
 vation has led me to conclude that it is easy to modify 
 boys' sentiments on almost every moral point, if only we 
 will go the right way to work and explain to them why 
 our view diifers from theirs. No doubt the change of 
 attitude will constitute a difficulty in a school where the 
 common sentiment is already existing ; but it can be 
 brought about by constant watchfulness and always 
 insisting upon the point, and would be an immense gain 
 to every one concerned. The mere knowledge that other 
 boys were likely to report grave cases would itself be a 
 powerful deterrent from any serious misdemeanour." 
 
 " I am indeed, Trelawney," said the Doctor, " surprised 
 at the attitude you adopt, and though I can recognise 
 some force in what you say, yet as an old public school 
 man it goes against the grain, and I cannot believe you 
 would readily get any set of boys to adopt your view." 
 
 " Going against the grain seems to me a poor argument, 
 however natural it may be ; it is a survival from the days 
 of our less civilized forefathers, a kind of atavism, which 
 
220 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 I am surprised you should show. Whatever has been 
 must be, would adequately sum the argument." 
 
 "I grant that your scorn is to some extent well-deserved, 
 but I feel that there is much to be gained by leaving boys 
 to hold that they are capable themselves of managing 
 their own affairs. And it seems to me your system would 
 lead to an evil which I have been expecting you to dwell 
 upon, the danger of interfering too much, of constantly 
 prying and so never leaving the boys a chance of standing 
 on their own legs. If you keep them under tutelage for 
 ever, you will never grow strong men." 
 
 " Yes, I admit the great danger of that result, and I 
 think we have already sufficiently dwelt upon it. But I 
 do not think it is likely to be much fostered by the reform 
 I have just advocated. Of course on De Quincey's scheme 
 I described above, the difficulty entirely disappears ; but 
 taking the world as one finds it at present, I think it 
 a mistake to pry too closely ; in fact I constantly repeat 
 to myself that one of a schoolmaster's first duties is to 
 shut his eyes wherever he can. If, for instance, I am 
 compelled to leave boys alone in a room for a little time, 
 I make it a point to set them some work and then never 
 to enquire whether there has been talking or any more 
 serious disorder, unless it has reached such a pitch that I 
 could not fail to be made, to the boys' own knowledge, 
 conscious of it. Moreover I never tell them not to talk, 
 merely to get on with their work while I am out of the 
 room. That trust begets trust is a principle I rarely find 
 fail. But in the case we have been discussing, that of 
 serious moral offences, — offences against discipline are, as 
 a rule, on a different footing, — I do not think we can be 
 too particular, nor do I really feel that we are weakening 
 a boy's power to stand alone. I do not wish to upset 
 altogether at present a boy's feeling about sneaking being 
 bad form, but I do wish to modify it, as it seems to me to 
 savour rather too much of the old adage about honour 
 among thieves. But I quite appreciate your strong 
 dissent; and so with your permission will leave the 
 matter as it stands, with the simple remark that it is one 
 of those cases where the decision on the right course of 
 action may lead to disagreement. 
 
 " But this question of telling tales has suggested to me 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 221 
 
 another point wliich I think it is the duty both of parents 
 and of schoolmasters to take vigorously in hand, checking 
 not merely others but above all themselves — I mean the 
 telling of stories to the discredit of others. Often such 
 tales are told for the mere fun of the story ; even so it is a 
 practice which is most undesirable ; but often there is a 
 spice of malice interspersed, which is the source of much 
 harm and the ruin of all charity. The habit of discussing 
 the characters of others, even when nothing uncharitable 
 is meant, is productive of great evil and should always be 
 checked sternly and decisively. In this connection I do 
 not think we need do more than take the Epistle of St. 
 James for our text ; what we find there will bear deep 
 meditation, and is likely if digested to improve our prac- 
 tice. Idle talk is the source of many an evil deed : with 
 children, in particular, we cannot be too careful. It is a 
 bitter and humiliating thing to confess, but I fear it is 
 only too true, that when we begin to discuss the charac- 
 ters of others, for every good point we dwell upon three 
 bad. So much more ready are we to pick out the evil 
 than appreciate at its true worth the good. And even 
 when stories are told with a merely humorous intent, I 
 am afraid they are rather like caricatures, — which, by the 
 bye, should be rigorously kept away from children, — they 
 are amusing but at the same time appeal to a low feeling. 
 At least there is a very great danger of their doing so, if 
 we introduce them before a character is well set. For my 
 own part I would try and avoid them altogether. But 
 before I finally quit this topic, I should just like to say, 
 having already mentioned St. James, that his epistle 
 strikes me as being a perfect compendium of the principles 
 on which we should found our moral training. I should 
 describe the book as the epistle for children, beautiful in 
 language, simple in expression and deep in thought, full 
 of the richest instruction which it requires but few words 
 to expand. Many of its sayings might be hung up as 
 decorations on the school walls : and though it is easy to 
 exaggerate the good done by the constant presence around 
 us of golden maxims, still I think that in many cases if 
 they are at hand in beautiful designs so that the teacher 
 can turn the children's attention to them whenever he is 
 inculcating any moral precept, there is a very considerable 
 
222 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 gain. And so rich a source in brief of so much moral 
 instruction I do not know as we find in St. James. 
 
 *' I am afraid I must have wearied you by my long enu- 
 meration of special points on which I think help can be 
 given in moral training. But my excuse must be that 
 being a schoolmaster myself, I have naturally had the 
 subject constantly before my thoughts ; and being most 
 anxious for the continual development of our moral 
 standards, I have not liked to pass over any single 
 thought that has at any time occurred to me, even where 
 I am not quite certain of its true value. But much of 
 what I have said I regard as merely tentative, for alas ! 
 we know only too well that — 
 
 ' The best laid schemes o' mice an' men 
 Gang aft a-gley.' 
 
 If, however, we work in a noble spirit enlightened by 
 careful thought, we may at least hope that all our labour 
 will not be thrown away. But I am very glad to have 
 reached an end, however poor the sum total may be, and I 
 can only thank you for listening so long and so acquies- 
 cingly to the dreamings of one who finds practice very 
 hard." 
 
IX 
 
 HERE I paused and waited for some one else to speak. 
 At last Mrs. Hind ley laid down her fan and turn- 
 ing to me said slowly : — 
 
 " I am sure, Mr. Trelawney, no one can think your time 
 ill spent, if it has been so productive of suggestions as 
 those you have just laid before us. But you see that 
 flower-bed out there, how carefully the gardener has 
 cleared it of weeds and stones and fenced it in, and yet 
 there is nothing growing there. Now, if it is not cruel to 
 say so, your scheme seems to me somewhat like that bed 
 or the action of the gardener. You take most excellent 
 measures to keep out weeds and anything that may 
 obstruct the growth of the moral flowers, but I do not see 
 that you have planted the other seeds which should 
 occupy the spare ground. And yet if the soil is left un- 
 occupied, may it not be the case of the man who turned 
 out one devil only to have his empty breast occupied later 
 with seven worse than the first ? Do not think me hard 
 in criticising you thus, for I am indeed grateful for what 
 you have said ; but it does seem to me that we want some- 
 thing more positive, and as I cannot supply it, I should be 
 glad to hear suggestions from some one who can." 
 
 I was beginning to say that I was really disappointed 
 after all my efforts at being told that I had merely taken 
 the preliminary steps, when Dr. Hindley intervened, and 
 turning to his wife said : — 
 
 " I think you forget, my dear, two things. The first is 
 that morality has two distinct sides, one an avoidance of 
 evil, whether temptation or action, the other a positive 
 doing of good. Now I cannot help feeling that the latter 
 is to a great extent a late development, and that to guard 
 from evil, so as to kill bad tendencies by want of exercise 
 and nourishment, must be our first step. The avoidance 
 
 223 
 
224 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 of evil is after all but the negative way of describing the 
 choice of good. And secondly, I think you have quite for- 
 gotten that we discussed at some length Professor Adler's 
 method of instniction in morality, and that all that Mr. 
 Trelawney proposed to do was to supplement that by 
 pointing out various particulars in which our school 
 arrangements might help our efforts directly." 
 
 " But still his recommendations were largely negative." 
 
 " I think," said Mr. Reynolds, " that is almost un- 
 avoidable. It can hardly be possible to draw up a scheme 
 of cases for action and then say what is to be done in each 
 case. But surely after all, if you think over what was 
 said, you will admit there was a great deal in the way of 
 positive suggestion, such as the seizure of every chance of 
 letting a boy act for himself, the effect of monitorships 
 and similar positions of trust, the direct inculcation of 
 habits of charity and forbearance, the control of the 
 temper and the like ; surely you would admit these to be 
 positive." 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Hindley ; " but if I may shift my 
 ground a little, they seem to me desultory, and not a real 
 scheme." 
 
 " Ah," I said, " there I quite admit what you say. But 
 I do not see how it is possible to draw up an actual 
 scheme. We have discussed at great length the pros and 
 cons of so arranging matters as to present cases of conflict 
 to children, in fact to tempt them, and I thought we were 
 unanimous in condemning the practice. But if we are to 
 wait for ordinary life to give us chances to show our 
 moral strength, then I do not understand how any one 
 can hope to draw up a scheme of any kind. Of course in 
 some cases of moral action, such as the support of a chari- 
 table institution — a work now so common with our public 
 schools — we do get a chance of practising morality ; but 
 after all that is as a corporate body more than as indi- 
 viduals, and besides has the advantage of not necessarily 
 leading to great moral harm supposing a boy refuses to 
 help. I do not think I mentioned that as one of the 
 matters in which I should certainly support current 
 practice. If I omitted it, I should like to make good the 
 omission now. But that is comparatively a slight test of 
 any boy's power of withstanding temptation on any large 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 22$ 
 
 and personal scale ; and how you are going to provide 
 such tests I do not see. I certainly cannot do so. After 
 all morality is a matter primarily of the will, if we are to 
 go into the psychology of it, from which we have hitherto 
 kept aloof; and the will is affected partly by natural 
 inclinations, — if philosophers will permit such an unphilo- 
 sophical statement, — partly by the reason and partly by 
 the feelings. Now taking these three elements separately, 
 I think that the first, the natural tendency, must be 
 mainly controlled by negative influences if bad, by posi- 
 tive opportunities of practice if good. So far then — and I 
 am not sure that this element perhaps is not more im- 
 portant than either of the other two — it seems to me that 
 what you, Mrs. Hindley, call my negative regulations are 
 precisely what is required. Opportunities for the develop- 
 ment of good tendencies are sure to occur of themselves 
 sufficiently often to leave us in no fear that these ten- 
 dencies will be starved or die from want of exercise, at 
 least in any school which can pretend to anything like a 
 good moral tone at all. But the only effective way of 
 getting over evil tendencies is to atrophy them by cutting 
 off all chances of nourishment : and it was at that result, 
 the precautions I laid down were aimed. So far then I 
 do not think my method was so bad. But then on the 
 second element, the reason — the enlightener and trainer of 
 conscience we might call it — there, it seems to me. Professor 
 Adler's method comes in. I have suggested supplement- 
 ing it by set discourses and essays occasionally, but in the 
 matter of the reason actual cases for practice are com- 
 paratively unimportant. There remains the third element 
 which enters into morality as affecting more or less 
 directly the volitional powers, I mean the feelings. Now 
 these I should say are the real motors in morals. I should 
 rather like to adapt a well-known simile to explain 
 exactly what I conceive to be the relation between the 
 three elements in question. Imagine three boys playing 
 at horses, two of them the horses and one the driver. 
 One of the horses we will suppose has much more speed 
 than the other, though not necessarily more strength, but 
 is unable to get on as fast as he wishes because of his 
 companion. The slower one also has wishes about the 
 direction in which they should go, which do not always 
 
226 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 coincide with the wishes of the other. What happens ? 
 The faster one, who here represents the emotions and 
 desire, supplies the motive power which keeps all three 
 going. He would rush on just wherever he likes and as 
 fast as ever he can, were it not that he has to reckon with 
 the other horse, reason, who firstly cannot go at the same 
 speed as his companion, and so is a perpetual curb, and 
 secondly often shows that his aims diverge completely 
 from those of feeling. When the two are in accord, will, 
 who is the driver, does little save follow their lead, 
 perhaps checking them at times, perhaps at other times 
 urging them on. But when the two horses are at vari- 
 ance and want to go different ways, what has the driver, 
 Master Will, to do ? Clearly to balance the wishes of the 
 two and take perhaps a middle course, perhaps go wholly 
 with the one leader or the other. I do not pretend that 
 the analogy is perfect, analogies rarely if ever are : the 
 chief defect lies in the fact that one is bound to represent 
 will as something outside of and independent of reason 
 and the emotions and desire, whereas there can be no will 
 without emotions and perhaps none without reason. The 
 three from this point of view are in fact indissolubly con- 
 nected. Now these feelings, which to me seem to give 
 the motive power, being in fact the mothers of desire, 
 what is the proper method of training them ? Surely by 
 appealing to them directly, by presenting enticing pictures 
 of all that is good and keeping far off the pictures of all 
 that is bad. We have, in fact, to make virtue attractive, 
 and this it seems to me my proposed course of action does ; 
 for I try to keep out of sight all that may tempt in vice, 
 and if vice is not known, but admiration for the good 
 cherished in its place, this love will prevent the other 
 assuming sway : two contradictory affections cannot 
 occupy the same ground at once. Where chances of 
 moral choice come in, I have already said we must be 
 ready to help, and we should do so by stirring the 
 amotions to feel that moral goodness is lovable in itself : 
 if then we bear in mind this amount of positive injunction 
 which I have already laid down, and if, above all, we show 
 by our own example that we feel the attractiveness of 
 virtue, I do not think that the various negative require- 
 ments which I have given in some detail ought to lay me 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 22/ 
 
 open to the charge of having done nothing direct. All I 
 fear is that we may have seemed to overweight the in- 
 tellectual side of the matter, as if reason were predominant : 
 for my own part I should say that of the three factors 
 which enter into the determination of character, the most 
 important are the feelings, and it is to their right culture 
 that our efforts must be in their final aim directed. Let 
 the feelings be right and volition will seldom fail to 
 concur; and in those comparatively rare cases where 
 flabbiness of will is attached to apparent depth of feeling 
 — though I fear if analysed this would often prove to be 
 nothing but mawkish sentimentality — we must attack 
 the will, as I have already shown, in other ways, by 
 making the child decide in cases where it is absolutely 
 necessary that some decision or other should be taken. 
 Moreover, we can work upon the moral reason of children 
 and show them that deep feeling that does not lead to 
 action is itself a defect ; it is little better I should say 
 than deliberate hypocrisy." 
 
 '' Well, Mr. Trelawney, perhaps you are right," Mrs. 
 Hindley replied ; " at all events I admit you have made 
 an ingenious defence. And it may be, after all, that the 
 discussion of such a subject as ours must of necessity 
 appear rather negative than positive ; but for my own 
 part I cannot help longing for positive instruction, though 
 I feel uttet-ly incapable of supplying it. But I have yet 
 another matter to bring before you. You have acted in 
 the same way as Mrs. Trelawney, and said absolutely 
 nothing about what I fear constitutes the characteristic 
 feature of schools at present — punishment." 
 
 " Ah," I replied, " I did not intend to take so strong a 
 line as my wife, and say that punishments were to be 
 non-existent. To that end I grant all our efforts must be 
 directed, for it is the ideal thing, however far from it we 
 may be at present. But I fully admit that though we 
 are sketching an ideal, we are bound to have some con- 
 sideration for present circumstances, in order to indicate 
 to some extent how it is possible to pass from what 
 Herbert Spencer calls our barbarous condition to the 
 higher and nobler state for which we are all striving. 
 Now, the first principle I should lay down would be this, 
 that you must make your punishments as light and in- 
 
228 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 frequent as possible, and drop them always when you 
 think that by a word or two of advice— in private it may 
 be — or a little extra pressure upon the boy's good feeling 
 and regard for you, you can attain your end without 
 direct punishment. Lightness and infrequency should be 
 our first aim : let moral persuasion take their place. A 
 hardened offender, if we should unhappily meet with any, 
 is far more likely to be influenced by novel treatment and 
 recognition of his position as a responsible being than 
 if we simply handle him as an inanimate objeco or as a 
 being who cannot grow callous to suffering. Much of our 
 punishment is effectless because it is so habitual. I 
 grant that in many cases a boy will strive to avoid what 
 is with him a common punishment for which he does not 
 really care ; but there are cases where a kind of despair 
 springs up, and the offender will offend from mere per- 
 versity and annoyance. Can any system be worse? 
 Variation of punishment must therefore be our second 
 aim, and for the third, I should say, take care to choose a 
 punishment which, if possible, is natural ; if not possible, 
 shall at least do the boy actual good in itself though not 
 as a punishment. My reason for adding such a proviso 
 is this, that our school arrangements being largely arti- 
 ficial and meant to provide for work being done with the 
 least trespassing achievable upon the claims of others to 
 freedom from interruption, it is not always possible so to 
 treat an offender as to let him merely suffer the natural 
 result of his misdeed. Take, for instance, such a case as 
 that of a boy forgetting to bring his book or his pen. 
 You will say that the natural punishment is for him to 
 do without it. True, but in most cases I fear that would 
 to him be no punishment at all, apart from the fact that 
 his dropping behind will in most cases hamper the class 
 for the future : so part of his penalty falls upon others." 
 
 Here my wife interposed. " I think," she said, " it is 
 not quite accurate to say that girls, at all events, and I 
 imagine boys are the same, would not feel it as a punish- 
 ment to be left without their books. It is one of the 
 leading features in a child's composition that she cannot 
 bear to be unique. I have before now adopted that 
 method of punishing, and I find that a child grows posi- 
 tively angry at being, as it were, left out in the cold, and 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 229 
 
 seldom offends in tlie same way again. Moreover, you 
 must insist on the offender taking part quite as much in 
 the lesson without her book as the others with. And 
 further, I should, in the case of any delay arising, point 
 out most carefully the wrong the offender was doing to 
 others as well as herself ; and by emphasizing this point, 
 especially in the minds of those who suffer unjustly, you 
 can bring the whole weight of their indignation to bear 
 upon the wrong-doer, who will scarcely dare to face that 
 formidable opposition again. It is not difficult to work 
 the children up to the point of driving others in this way, 
 especially if it means that you have been prevented get- 
 ting through the set amount of work in the time, and so 
 have to take some minutes out of school." 
 
 "Don't you think," said Mrs. Eeynolds, "considering 
 how rigid children are in enforcing their views upon 
 others, that it is rather an unmerciful engine to use ? " 
 
 " It may be so to some extent, yet I think it is justifi- 
 able. They will probably merely express their feelings 
 violently, and the sense that she has offended against 
 public opinion will probably cure the offender of that 
 terrible social fault, a careless disregard of the interests 
 of others." 
 
 "Your position, my dear," I said, "is no doubt the 
 correct one ; the only difficulty is that it seems so unjust 
 to deliberately punish others for the sake of the one." 
 
 " I do not think it unjust ; indeed, it seems to me one 
 of the main incentives to the progress of the world. If 
 the punishment for sins fell upon the sinner alone, 
 morality would be a matter of purely personal interest. 
 But it is precisely because almost every wrong deed 
 affects others perhaps even more than ourselves that we 
 are enabled to bring strong pressure to bear upon those 
 who would live only at their own sweet will to abstain 
 from acts which are injurious not merely to themselves. 
 And of all lessons of morality I look upon this as one of 
 the most valuable to be taught to a child. It was Dr. 
 Hindley, I think, who laid down the admirable principle 
 that one of our lodestars must be the development of a 
 sense of unending responsibility. If we are able to show 
 children by a practical object-lesson in such a small point 
 as that we have just been considering, how every act has 
 
230 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 its bearing upon the happiness of others, we have a far 
 greater chance of leading them to realize this most vital 
 principle in the more serious acts of their after-life. Man 
 cannot live alone : our every act therefore must be influ- 
 enced by a consideration of the bearing it will have upon 
 the happiness of others. Children, after all, must be pre- 
 pared for life, and we can easily show them that what 
 happens at school is but the counterpart of what happens 
 hereafter." 
 
 " I still feel the difficulty ; I am not at all sure that 
 we ought to make others suffer because they will do so in 
 after-life." 
 
 " I differ from you, Mr. Trelawney," said Mrs. Hindley, 
 " and agree with your wife. After all, we must take the 
 world as it stands. It is impossible to imagine what 
 would be the state of morality — indeed, I rather think 
 the term would have no meaning — if each of us were an 
 isolated being with no bearings at all upon the rest of the 
 world ; and what we have to do is so to train the child 
 that he shall understand the principles upon which his 
 conduct has to be guided through all his days. When the 
 world has reached such a stage that society exercises no 
 pressure, direct or indirect, to keep men from wrong- 
 doing, then human nature will be perfect, and there will 
 be no need to consider the best means of training the 
 young to morality. But till that welcome stranger shall 
 have arrived — and I hardly think he is knocking at our 
 doors just yet — I should do as Mrs. Trelawney advocates 
 — take suggestions from the world of life. 
 
 " But to return to the point from which we diverged. 
 You said that in some cases punishment could not be 
 natural. Does not that rather show that your school 
 arrangements are unnatural? Such a feeling ought to 
 throw you back upon criticism and to suggest that there 
 is some defect you can remedy. And it certainly seems to 
 me that if we were to carry out in its full extent the 
 principle my husband enunciated as cardinal, which in 
 our hearts we have all, I believe, accepted as the ideal, 
 that school should be based entirely upon love, it would 
 be impossible to urge that punishments could not be 
 natural ; there would always be the one, the master's dis- 
 pleasure, which even now under proper conditions acts as 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 23 1 
 
 a deterrent — often a powerful one — and under better con- 
 ditions still would not need reinforcing." 
 
 " I am afraid, Mrs. Hindley," I said, " you are very 
 sanguine, though I admit some truth in what you say, 
 even at present." 
 
 " And then there is another point," Mrs. Hindley went 
 on. " You said that where punishments could not be 
 natural, it was desirable the punishment should be good 
 iu itself apart from the fact of its being a punishment. 
 What did you exactly mean? " 
 
 " I meant that at present so many of our punishments 
 are absolutely without colour as moral agents, save in so 
 far as they are just. To keep a boy in with nothing to 
 do may, so far from being a moral measure, be exactly the 
 reverse. Now I would always take care to set some task 
 which, though not perhaps bearing itself a moral charac- 
 ter, yet should be the means of doing the boy some good. 
 I would set him, for instance, to a piece of good writing, 
 or to learn a poem or do a sum, or to take a punishment of 
 a different kind. I would give him some drill or other 
 physical exercise, of as stiff a nature as possible, for I am 
 a great believer in the value of physical exertion, especi- 
 ally for idleness. Of course I am aware that convict 
 labour is not very productive, and that punishment drill 
 will not do the good that may be expected from volun- 
 teering; but I have found it an advantage, and at all 
 events it secures that a boy gets fresh air, and does not 
 continue his state of brain exhaustion, which in some 
 cases is really at the bottom ©f his offence. 
 
 '* The great harm of punishments, however, I am con- 
 vinced is their frequency, though it is the natural se- 
 quence of laying down the law that a given offence shall 
 have a given penalty. But such a position is drawn from 
 the life of a State, which stands on a different footing 
 from the life of an individual. Eemembering, as we 
 should do, that at school we are to guide and improve by 
 punishment, and not merely check, we cannot expect the 
 same principles to hold as where we have to do with an 
 established criminal class. Some principles will of course 
 be the same under both conditions, as that the punishment 
 should be proportioned to the offence and its difficulty of 
 detection, but in almost every case there will be a great 
 
232 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 divergence of detail, and at school in especial we are at 
 liberty to try tlie effects of mercy much more, as we have 
 some direct knowledge of the offender's general character. 
 For the same reason it is not well to have a fixed scale 
 of punishments ; we cannot then remit without seeming 
 unjust. Moreover, such fixity leads to a spirit of calcula- 
 tion, as under strong temptation the boy may reckon up 
 that he is quite willing to purchase the forbidden pleasure 
 at the cost of the established pain. A choice of punish- 
 ments is sometimes a good thing to adopt, as was the case 
 apparently in the school whose history De Quincey has 
 sketched for us. Punishments there seem to have been 
 few — a strong proof of the goodness of the system he 
 records. 
 
 "Another point I would emphasize in considering punish- 
 ments is the absolute importance of making perfectly clear 
 why a particular punishment is inflicted. I have as head 
 master more than once had boys say that they had no 
 idea why they had been punished. Before punishment a 
 boy must always be induced to admit that he has com- 
 mitted the fault alleged, or else have an opportunity of 
 defending himself from the charge. Few boys, when they 
 see the real aspect of their fault from the point of view of 
 discipline, or of their own moral tone, will resent suffering 
 in consequence of the infringement of rule. But a vast 
 deal of harm is done by leaving boys to think that punish- 
 ment is due to mere caprice, inflicted often where it is not 
 deserved. Boys do not always see without explanation 
 points that to us seem as clear as day. On the other hand, 
 one must be careful not to allow them to wrangle : if 
 there seems to be a long argument impending — ' Answer 
 a fool according to his folly, and he shall be wise in his 
 own conceit' — postpone the matter till afterwards, and 
 talk to him in private. I am a great believer in private 
 talks. Indeed, I would say that the chief punishment 
 should be a report to the head master and a private talk 
 with him. I believe it would be found of far more effect 
 than the stock of punishments now so commonly in vogue. 
 Of course it may occupy a lot of time, but boys dread it 
 more than anything else. They never know what the 
 outcome will be. It would mean, too, that with due 
 caution such reports would be rare ; it would never do to 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 233 
 
 cheapen the head master's influence. In a large boarding- 
 school there would be the intermediate step of reporting 
 to the house-master, and so a double check would be kept 
 in reserve. 
 
 "But one caution in particular I would lay down — 
 never threaten. That follows naturally from the feeling 
 of trust which we wish to develop throughout the school. 
 It also depends on another principle, which I will enunci- 
 ate in the clearest terms — avoid absolutely the use of fear. 
 Kindliness must prevail even under severity. Fear, it 
 has been said, is a very hot-bed of lying, and apart alto- 
 gether from that serious moral danger, it throws a boy's 
 mind off its balance, and acts, I am afraid, often as a kind 
 of fascination — attracts the boy to the very fault forbid- 
 den as a bird is attracted by a cat or a snake. It para- 
 lyses the will, and that alone is sufficient to condemn its 
 use as a moral agent." 
 
 " Then I suppose, Trelawney," said Dr. Hindley, " you 
 would have nothing to say to corporal punishment. I 
 remember Herbert Spencer picks that out in particular as 
 a clear proof of the fact that we are still living in a bar- 
 barous state ; personally, I detest it utterly, and I imagine 
 you would do the same." 
 
 " Detest it, yes ; but I am not sure that there is not 
 something to be said for the view of which Herbert 
 Spencer shows himself conscious, that it is perhaps a 
 means well suited to our barbarous condition, barbarous 
 though it be in itself. As a matter of fact, I have not 
 been able to fix my opinions quite firmly on the point. I 
 certainly loathe it, and try to avoid it as much as I can, 
 and if any one says I ought not to use it at all, I am not 
 prepared to defend myself on moral grounds. It seems to 
 me the ultimate reason for its maintenance has simply 
 been laziness or incompetence on the part of the masters. 
 It is so much easier to keep, as it were, a running account, 
 so much wrong on one side, so much punishment on the 
 other, and then what does it matter whether each sepa- 
 rate item corresponds to another item on the other side, 
 provided the sum-totals seem evenly balanced ? So much 
 easier is it, but how utterly unjust ! It never seems to 
 strike those who tacitly act upon this principle, that 
 there is no common measure between a misdeed and its 
 
234 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 punishment, unless the punishment is the natural out- 
 come of the misdeed. There are only two cases where 
 corporal punishment seems to me justifiable, and even in 
 one of those I cannot defend my view on the ground of 
 its being the natural result ; one is the case of gross im- 
 purity, the other the case of gross cruelty. In the former 
 case I might hesitate about using the cane ; in the latter 
 I think I never should. But I should not be sorry if its 
 use were abandoned altogether, for, apart from the fact 
 that it may in some cases harden, it is a very unequal 
 punishment : to one boy it will be the keenest suffering, 
 to another little more than a passing inconvenience. The 
 point that is so often urged of its being such an indignity 
 to a rational being, I do not think, as the world goes, is 
 of much weight. I always am most careful to put that 
 point of view whenever I do have recourse to caning. The 
 disgrace, I say, is worse than the pain, and some boys 
 certainly feel it so ; but after all most of them look upon 
 what seems inevitable as a thing to be endured without 
 remonstrance, and I certainly do not hold that the average 
 boy who has looked upon caning as one of the regular 
 features of school is likely of himself to develop the view 
 that it is an insult to his dignity as a human being. We 
 must not read into the boy's mind the late reflections of 
 philosophers. 
 
 '' We have already considered the dangers of shame, and 
 it follows from what we then said that all punishment in 
 public is wrong. I never allow another boy to be present 
 when I administer the cane, partly because one can reach 
 a boy's conscience more readily when he is taken alone, 
 partly because the sight of another suffering in this way 
 is apt, I think, instead of developing sympathy, to 
 brutalize. Sympathy is better fostered by other boys 
 knowing what is being done, but not being allowed to see 
 it. And similarly I do not think it is right to administer 
 serious punishment, or perhaps any punishment at all, at 
 the time of the committal of the offence. If we postpone 
 the sentence, we have more chance of taking a dispassion- 
 ate view, and the boy will realize we are not then likely 
 to be actuated by passion. The difficulty is that the 
 master is in many cases both accuser and judge : we have 
 therefore to guard against the least appearance of heat. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 235 
 
 In the case of caning it is well to postpone sentence even 
 till the next day. Let the boy know that you are con- 
 sidering his case : he will pay more attention when called 
 up for sentence. 
 
 "Such a matter as striking a boy on the ear or any such 
 form of physical attack I condemn utterly as being not 
 merely the result of passion or want of moral power, but 
 as being in itself of the essence of cowardice. No doubt 
 Dr. Hindley could tell us of the physical harm done, of 
 which I have heard most painful cases ; but a truly moral 
 man who has considered the question, would not, I imagine, 
 stand up for one moment to defend so ignoble and brutal 
 a proceeding. If we treat boys with passion we shall do 
 one of two things — turn them out weak-spirited and feeble 
 specimens of humanity, or engender angry passions in 
 them as well : and then where is the use of our elaborate 
 scheme of moral education ? 
 
 "If corporal punishment is to be used either not at all 
 or most sparingly, and our hopes of influencing children 
 through their affections break down, it follows that our 
 only resource is the last one, that of expelling the boy 
 from the school. Now I agree with Dr. Arnold that ex- 
 pulsion is a remedy it is our duty to use more frequently 
 than is often the case. Unfortunately there attaches to 
 it such a social stigma that its effect is likely to last 
 through life. But if it were more frequent that misjudg- 
 ment would be corrected, and the measure would be suffi- 
 cient to bring a boy to his senses. But the step is now 
 reserved as a remedy for moral offences of the gravest 
 character : hence it suggests that a boy falls so far short 
 of current standards of morality that he will never be 
 able in after-life to correct his defects. Now it is unfair 
 to any one that he should have his character fixed without 
 chance of alteration by his school career. JPor not merely 
 may a boy's failure at school be due to some personal bias 
 not at all to his real discredit, but the weakness of boys' 
 wills may often land them in sins which in after years 
 they would deplore more than any one. Not always as 
 the boy is, so is the man. Hence if we could establish a 
 more rational feeling on the matter of expulsion from 
 school, I think we should have done a not small service. 
 But even apart from that argument, we have to balance 
 
236 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 our duty to an individual boy against our duty to the 
 school as a whole. Now there is no doubt that persistent 
 idleness or impertinence or disobedience, even in minor 
 matters, is a serious moral offence when committed under 
 such circumstances that its influence may spread and 
 hamper the progress of the whole school. Arnold was pre- 
 pared to use the knife freely and I think he was right : 
 we have more duties to some hundreds of boys than to 
 one. And if that one will not make serious efforts to rise 
 to the level of the others, he must go, lest he bring down 
 others to himself. I am speaking now, be it understood, 
 of comparatively light but persistent offences, — which I 
 would not treat, as Locke does, with the cane, — not of 
 those more grave cases where no one, I suppose, would 
 say that expulsion is not the right course. And even in 
 the interests of the individual himself, I think the course 
 I am advocating is the wisest. He will receive a warn- 
 ing before the step is taken, and the stigma of expulsion 
 may be averted by asking his father to remove him 
 quietly ; so far then the boy will have received no harm. 
 What should be done next ? Clearly the best course is 
 to bring personal influence to bear : it has failed, it may 
 be, in a school of one hundred or of three or four hundred ; 
 it does not follow that it will fail in a school of twenty. 
 I know that of late there has been started a school with 
 the express intention of receiving only those boys who 
 have had to be removed from a public school. Often, as 
 the head of this school maintains, the failure is due as 
 much to the unsuitability of the original school to the 
 peculiar character in question, as to any real defect in the 
 boy's disposition ; hence it is but right, he says, that a 
 boy should have a chance of making a fresh start : that 
 chance he gives him, relying in the main upon personal 
 watching and the utmost interest taken in every case. 
 For this reason he sets a limit to his numbers : twenty- 
 four is the number chosen, as many, he thinks, as each 
 master can thoroughly know. He rightly insists on the 
 importance of the personal element from the teachers' side 
 taking a very large share in the discipline of the school : 
 with that view none of us are likely to quarrel. He de- 
 serves to succeed in so noble an effort, and should he fail, 
 I think we may conclude that he has really got hold of 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 237 
 
 some of those strange anomalies thrown up occasionally 
 in the history of civilization — reversions to a savage type 
 whom nothing conld affect. 
 
 ^' I should like before I close to make one other sugges- 
 tion on the matter of punishments — a suggestion due to a 
 boyish experience of my own. On one occasion soon after 
 I entered a large school as a child of eleven years, my 
 brother and I were found by one of the masters throwing 
 bread at each other across the dinner-table. The master, 
 who was rather a peppery individual, did not deal with 
 the case at once, but sent for us later on. He pointed out 
 the gravity of the breach of manners involved, which we, 
 I suppose, realized, as I remember it to this day, and then 
 said that if we had not been new boys, he would have 
 caned us. But instead he had determined on another 
 punishment, which was to keep us in, and for what pur- 
 pose do you suppose ? To let us do our night -work ; we 
 were not to go until we had finished it ! Well do I re- 
 member how much amused we were at the idea that such 
 detention was punishment ; but as I look back now I see the 
 wisdom of the man, which was quite lost upon the percep- 
 tion of a boy. He knew that he had gained his end, which 
 was to get us to avoid such conduct in future ; he knew 
 also, or thought, that he was bound to do something ; so 
 he chose a punishment which might seem at first a punish- 
 ment, but was really not so at all. I have no doubt that 
 instead of feeling grateful to him, we thought him a great 
 fool ; but he was willing to forego his reputation for 
 wisdom if only he might be wise in reality. And so I 
 would say now : if you have to punish, choose as often as 
 you can those forms of punishment which seem punish- 
 ment outside, but are not at all a punishment in reality. 
 You need have no fear that your leniency will be abused ; 
 if it were you could soon correct it ; all that will happen 
 will be that the boys will think you blind, as they call 
 it, — a great fool ; but I do not know that you will be any 
 the worse for that if your character is really a strong one, 
 and the boys, consciously or unconsciously, are alive to 
 the fact." 
 
HERE once more I stopped, having reached my long 
 journey's end, and I could not help heaving a sigh 
 of relief. Mrs. Hindley looked amused and said : '* Doubt- 
 less you are weary, but we will give your voice a little rest 
 now. And for a time I imagine you will not be prepared 
 to support the character your wife gave you the other day, 
 of never being willing that any one should talk, if you 
 could not lead the way. Truly it is an instance of a 
 natural punishment." 
 
 At this sally there was a laugh, and I could only say : 
 '' I am afraid that for a week to come my voice will be 
 little heard. However, my boys to-morrow will pro- 
 bably not be sorry, and I shall have a splendid chance of 
 testing the power of mind in moral government." 
 
 '' But now," said Mrs. Hindley, '' who is to proceed ? 
 We have still to discuss the University and to give the 
 final wind-up. Who is the best suited for the task ? " 
 
 Here the Doctor interposed. *' Before we pass on to 
 that new branch, I should like to refer to one matter 
 which I hoped to hear either the schoolmaster or his wife 
 discuss ; but as they have not done so, I will introduce it 
 myself here, as it affects home and school life rather than 
 the Universities. The question of which I am thinking 
 is the indulgence in unusual pleasures during school time, 
 or when they in any way interfere with a child's regular 
 routine. Is it wise to allow that or not ? " 
 
 " Certainly," said Reynolds ; *' it adds a fresh impetus 
 to work, and brightens a child. A little stimulus is 
 always good." 
 
 '' But how far would you go ? Would you let a child 
 stop away from school to make an excursion into the 
 country ? " 
 
 " I think so ; more good may be got from such an ex- 
 cursion than from that particular day's work." 
 
 238 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 239 
 
 ^' But what about regularity ? Is it not fatal to tliat ? " 
 " Not once in a way." 
 ^' But where would you draw the line ? " 
 " I should only allow such a treat to be very occasional." 
 "Even occasionally I think it harmful. But take 
 another instance. You remember the case I mentioned 
 before of a father wanting to take his son to Rome for 
 Easter, and the head master refusing leave ; do you think 
 the head master right or wrong ? " 
 
 " Most certainly injudicious ; though I can understand 
 his action. Why, you yourself said you held him to be 
 wrong ! " 
 
 " Well, I will give yet another case. Suppose a brother 
 is returning home after a long absence, would you take 
 your boy to meet him at the station during school hours ? " 
 ^' Yes, I think so ; he need not be away long." 
 " But how often would you allow such treats ? " 
 " Oh, the chance would not be likely to occur often. I 
 certainly would only permit them very occasionally." 
 " But you are acting upon no principle." 
 " No. Each case must be decided on its merits." 
 " True ; but you surely want a principle behind." 
 " No harm would be done by such occasional treats. I 
 do not think there is any fear of general regularity being 
 broken by such rare occurrences. And beyond regularity 
 what else is there to consider ? The child can easily make 
 up what he misses at school." 
 
 " Reynolds ! " I exclaimed, " I am really surprised. 
 I can tell you of one piece of harm that is done, and that 
 is interruption to the work of the whole class to which 
 belongs the child who is absent for trifling causes. That 
 appeals strongly to me as a schoolmaster, and I really 
 think you will yourself admit that it is a breach of our 
 duty to others to treat them in such a way." 
 '' Yes, I had not thought of that." 
 " I," said the Doctor, " object entirely to any absence 
 from school at all. Apart from the point which Mr. 
 Trelawney has naturally, as a schoolmaster, just urged, 
 there is the very, very serious moral objection that the 
 child never learns the supremacy of law. I really think, 
 Mr. Reynolds, when you consider the case, you will see 
 how grave a matter this is." 
 
240 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 " I admit its gravity, but I only urged an occasionji]. 
 relaxation." 
 
 "I would have no relaxation at all. The child's first 
 duty is to learn order, and to do his regular work despite 
 temptations. This duty he never will learn if we do not 
 keep him strictly at his school routine. Duty first and 
 pleasure afterwards is the motto I always quote to my 
 own children when the question turns up ; I say they get 
 their relaxations in the holidays, during term time they 
 must earn them." 
 
 " I would not be quite as absolute as you are," said my 
 wife. " I have no scruple, for instance, in letting a child 
 stay away for an exceptional family event, such as a 
 marriage ; nor do I mind them going out in the evening, 
 provided they can get their work done, and the pleasure 
 will not take too long a time, or upset them for the next 
 day. And your o^ti view on the Rome case seemed the 
 same." 
 
 " In the latter of your two instances," said the Doctor, 
 " I am not sure I should agree with you. Steady uni- 
 formity of life from day to day is of very great value, 
 morally, intellectually and physically. But in the case of 
 going to E,ome, as I indicated before, I probably should 
 have stretched a point, and for a marriage, though I should, 
 I suppose, consent to absence, it would be with consider- 
 able reluctance." 
 
 " What a Spartan you are. Doctor," I said. " But I am 
 very glad to hear you so emphatic, though I am not sure I 
 should be quite so stringent. Certainly, if all parents, 
 were as strict as you desire, day-schools would be free from 
 half their difficulties." 
 
 " But," went on Reynolds, " don't you think such a re- 
 laxation would be a very fitting reward for previous good 
 work?" 
 
 " Virtue should be its own reward. But if that doctrine 
 is too rigid, then let the schoolmaster give a holiday, not 
 the parent steal one. A worse example I cannot imagine. 
 Absence from school ought only to be for the very gravest 
 reasons. I have known parents allow their children to 
 stay up late for the purpose of going to concerts or dances, 
 or theatres ; with what result on their next day's work, 
 I should not like to think. I remember once being shown. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 24 1 
 
 by a friend a printed address from the head master of a 
 large day-school to the parents of all his boys, in which 
 he specially urged the wrongness of any such interruption 
 to the steady school routine as theatre-going. My friend 
 thought he was exorbitant in his demands ; I, on the con- 
 trary, thoroughly approved. It is often quite as easy for 
 parents to arrange the pleasures so that they will not 
 clash with school ; and even if that is impossible, surely 
 the discipline of self-denial has its value for the child. 
 During school years, and during the time when regular 
 instruction is given at home, nothing ought to interfere. 
 I hoped to have heard the matter considered by the last 
 two speakers, or by one of them ; but as they passed it 
 over, I felt bound to raise a protest. It is a question of 
 vital importance, if the child is to become orderly and 
 possessed of a due sense of the claims which others have 
 upon him. The gospel is one to be preached to parents ; 
 we cannot proclaim it too loudly. Most people when the 
 crisis comes urge, as Mr. Reynolds did, that it is only for 
 once ; I say, let it not be for even only once, else when 
 you refuse another indulgence, your child will say you are 
 inconsistent and capricious, deciding just as pleases you 
 from the whim of the moment. That too is a danger to con- 
 sider. If once a child is embarked on an orderly life, 
 let nothing interfere so far as we can help ; interferences 
 enough will come from outside, let us do nothing to further 
 them. 
 
 " But now having made my protest I am happy, and 
 quite ready, if no one has any other objection to raise, to 
 proceed to the discussion of the Universities. My wife, I 
 remember, was just asking who was to handle the 
 subject." 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Hindley, " who is to give the finishing 
 touch to this long discussion ? " 
 
 " I was going to say, Mrs. Hindley," said my wife, 
 ''when you asked the question before, that my husband, 
 the Doctor and I have all done our parts, and I think it 
 would be interesting to hear you with your levelling 
 opinions upon those hotbeds of luxury, as I have no doubt 
 you would call them, the Universities." 
 
 "That would be all right enough," Mrs. Hindley re- 
 plied, "if we were discussing a purely social question and 
 
 R 
 
242 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 the value and use of the Universities to society at large. 
 But for the present we are accepting them as an essential, 
 part of a complete scheme of national education, and all 
 we have to do is to lay down the ways in which they can 
 most advantage moral education. For this purpose it seems 
 desirable that the matter should be handled by one who 
 has actual knowledge and experience of them. But as 
 we have not here a University don, we must be content 
 with smaller fry. Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Trelawney are 
 the only members of our party who have actually been 
 at our two older Universities ; naturally therefore it 
 should be one of them who should expound to us the 
 position and functions of a University in moral education ; 
 and as Mr. Trelawney has already had his share of work, 
 and has pleaded that he is tired, not, mark you, incapable, 
 I propose we ask Mr. Reynolds to take the question — 
 what part should a University play in a system of moral 
 education ? " 
 
 The proposition met with general assent, and Mi\ 
 Reynolds at once began : — 
 
 " I will not plead that I am not specially fitted for the 
 task you have put into my hands, for though it is true, 
 yet I think it possible I may be as well fitted as any one 
 here present. G-ranted that I am not and never have 
 been a don, yet I keep myself in fairly close touch with 
 the University, and it has not unfrequently happened that 
 when I have been dining at high table, or have been 
 staying with dons in their private houses, I have heard 
 our present subject handled at some length. Since we 
 first started the topic of moral education, I have been 
 trying to collect what sentiments I had heard; and 
 though I cannot say how much of what I shall propound 
 is the opinion expressed by others and how much my own 
 elaboration therefrom, I will give it you just for what it 
 is worth. 
 
 "To begin with, I shall assume that a boy when 
 entering the University has been under the training we 
 have already sketched for securing a good moral develop- 
 ment. If this be so, he will start his new life with quite 
 a different character from what has been styled the 
 nerveless condition in which the mass of undergraduates 
 at present appear. Granted that he has been taught to 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 243 
 
 stand on his own legs, and that he could give reasons for 
 the greater part of his conduct, and has been in the habit 
 of judging, not by conventional codes, but by an abstract 
 rule of right and wrong, what has the University got to 
 do ? It is evident, comparatively little, save to extend 
 his knowledge and capacities for action, and to give him 
 more chance of proving his power to rise to a high level 
 from a plain sense of duty and not from any fear of ex- 
 ternal pressure. I think, therefore, you will see that I 
 am going to be brief, and I do not fancy you will wish 
 anything else. 
 
 " Yet before I actually begin, I should like to say one 
 word on the question of religion. We set out to discuss 
 the possibility of a moral education apart from the sanc- 
 tions of religion, and I at first demurred on the ground 
 that such a morality would be at best a lifeless thing. I 
 am now free to admit that I think I was wrong. Not 
 that for one moment I do not consider that in the ultimate 
 resort all true morality must rest upon religion, and that 
 the morality of the world as it now is, so far as it is good, 
 is a direct growth from Christianity; but I see more 
 clearly than I did that in education it is possible to treat 
 the subjects separately, and that something will be gained 
 thereby, as we shall separate the real essence of religious 
 truths from all that is accidental or peculiar to certain 
 sects. Still I cannot but hold that in treating morality 
 alone, if religious lessons, that is, are not to be given 
 parallel to the others, we are throwing away the strongest 
 support we can have ; and if it could be supposed that 
 all religion were to disappear for ever from the world, 
 morality I am sure would not survive it long. However 
 much morality may try to separate herself from her 
 mother, religion, I am certain the study of the former 
 alone leads by an inevitable sequence of thought to the 
 demonstration of the necessity of the latter. All our talk 
 has proved it, though the name of religion has hardly 
 been mentioned." 
 
 *'0n your two propositions just enunciated," said the 
 Doctor, " I should say that every one may have his own 
 opinion." 
 
 " Certainly, replied Reynolds, '' though I should be 
 really sorry to think that any one here did not recognise 
 
244 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 in his heart the indissoluble connection of religion and 
 morality. But as we are not treating of religious educa- 
 tion at present — though if you were to ask me, I should 
 say that no scheme of moral education could be complete 
 in practice which did not include it — I will say no more 
 about the matter, but pass on at once to consider ethical 
 training as best given in the Universities. 
 
 " Now granted, as I have said, that boys leaving school 
 at about eighteen or nineteen are to have behind them the 
 careful moral training we have already sketched, together 
 with the habit of thinking about morals and the know- 
 ledge of their great responsibility in the matter, I think 
 the first principle I should lay down would be this, that 
 at the University there should be no restraints at all 
 except those of the young man's own conscience and public 
 opinion. His conscience, though we have scarcely men- 
 tioned the term, will have been sufficiently enlightened 
 to act as a safe guide : if it does not do so by now, I fear 
 it never will." 
 
 " I am afraid," I said, " that among the many awful 
 proposals we have had to make in the course of our dis- 
 cussion, none is more awful, at least to the experts, than 
 your proposal to sweep away all the restraints. What 
 about the elaborate paraphernalia of gowns and gatings, 
 chapels and roll-calls ? And how, pray, are the poor 
 proctors to live, to say nothing of their more unfortunate 
 bull-dogs? Why, I can see in my mind's eye the dean 
 of my college with hair turned white with horror, and 
 as for the Head, I am sure, if he heard it, he would die in 
 an apoplectic fit." 
 
 " To shock the world, Trelawney, is often the only way 
 to procure a reform. But is it not ridiculous that we 
 should have to keep so close a watch upon responsible 
 beings, supposed the best products of our boasted public 
 schools, when they have come to such years that they 
 must, whether we wish it or no, be largely treated as 
 men? There must be something rotten, both probably at 
 the schools and at the Universities, when such a system 
 has to be pursued." 
 
 " But what woald you do," I asked, " in the case of 
 offenders ? " 
 
 " Send them down." 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 245 
 
 " That would surely be rather hard." 
 
 " No harder — nay, not so hard as your expulsion system 
 at school. And there is even more reason for such a 
 course at the University, inasmuch as the subjects are 
 so much older. If at nineteen a man does not know how 
 to employ himself reasonably, it is as well to teach him by 
 setting him to earn his own living as speedily as possible. 
 For my part, I would be far more stringent than is 
 usually the case on the matter of wasting time. I would 
 not have the University regarded as a place where men 
 can spend three or four years in nothing but racing and 
 athletics, card-playing and entertainments. I would 
 have it a home of serious work, a fitting crown to all the 
 past education. You may say that colleges must have 
 money to live. I say in reply, that if such a standard 
 were maintained as I suggest, the cost of living at the 
 University would decrease so much, and the middle 
 classes would have so much higher an idea of the value 
 of a University course — at present I know many of them 
 regard it as merely a scene of dissipation — that the 
 colleges would be in no dread of being bankrupt, and the 
 influences of the University would have far more chance 
 than now of touching those who are most in need of them. 
 Too often now the leaders of thought, especially of 
 scientific thought, are utterly unconnected with, nay, 
 even hostile to, our older Universities, Matters, I grant, 
 have improved immensely, but still not enough; and if 
 the reform does not come more quickly still, I fear we 
 shall find it forced upon us from without. When once 
 the democracy realizes the wealth and possibilities of 
 good in the Universities, it is not likely to leave them 
 alone. Primary education has been reformed, secondary 
 is on the eve of undergoing the same process; the only 
 hope for the Universities is to reform themselves. True, 
 intellectual reform is wanted ; but in the main, I believe, 
 it is the moral side that is urgent. This must be my 
 excuse if I have seemed hot on the matter, and if I have 
 run away or seemed to run away from what is our im- 
 mediate subject. 
 
 '' Discipline, then, I say, should be unnecessary at the 
 University: expulsion should be the only course. But 
 there are two respects in which I hold that the University 
 
246 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 affords us an excellent ground for training in morals : first, 
 in direct exposition of the theory ; and secondly, in unique 
 opportunities of practice. These two points seem to me 
 to sum up the whole duty of a University as regards 
 moral training, and these are the points I shall proceed to 
 elaborate. 
 
 "First, then, I will treat of the exposition of the theory. 
 Now it was one of the points which I was sorry that Mr. 
 Trelawney did not make quite clear — the actual extent 
 of knowledge of moral philosophy proper with which a 
 boy on his system was supposed to leave school." 
 
 " My own feeling," I said, " is that it is better not to 
 touch the subject at all at school. After all, a child 
 trained, as we have proposed, will have got the habit of 
 mind suited for discussing the problems of ethics: he 
 will recognise the difficulties in the conflict of duties, and 
 so, if thoughtful, will have come to see that w^e may want 
 eventually some ultimate canon to guide our decision. 
 This, I think, is as far as it is desirable to go. If a boy 
 happens to get on to the subject in his private reading, I 
 do not know that I should discourage him, but I would 
 never invite him to treat the matter in school. My 
 objection is chiefly this : that I think in many cases the 
 beginnings of moral philosophy have an unsettling effect ; 
 and if there is any tendency in this direction, it is better 
 that it should manifest itself when the student is living 
 among those who have passed beyond this stage, rather 
 than when he is still with those who have not yet arrived 
 at the difficulties, from whom, therefore, he can gain no 
 help, and to whom he may himself suggest doubts which 
 they will never have the means of settling." 
 
 " Yes," said Reynolds, " that is the best plan to 
 adopt, though I fear that if our training has been at all 
 systematic, the difficulties will arise long before a boy 
 leaves school. But, after all, I am not sure whether the 
 difficulties he may feel would not be quite as great 
 whether he knew or did not know moral philosophy. For 
 it seems to me that the schemes of moral philosophers, 
 when regarded as means of furnishing us with a master- 
 key to our duties, are extremely unsatisfactory. I do not 
 know that they are any the worse for that, for not merely 
 are they meant to cover a much wider ground, but the 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 247 
 
 philosopliers would be the first to confess that a satis- 
 factory conclusion, apart from religion, has not yet been 
 reached. But one thing happily we may note — that amid 
 all the varieties of principle which have been laid down 
 as the ultimate sanctions of morality, there is scarcely one 
 which leads to a serious difference in code from the rest, 
 when we attempt to apply them in actual practice. 
 
 " Now, moral philosophy is an abstract science, and 
 therefore it is not to be expected that in itself it will have 
 any bearing upon character. It is really when we apply 
 its conclusions to practice that it becomes an art, and as 
 such important to us here. Now, as I have already said, 
 the various principles which have been propounded as the 
 ultimate sources of moral obligation do not often lead to 
 serious practical divergencies, if indeed they do in any 
 one case. What, then, is the use of studying the 
 science ? It is useful, apart from its mental discipline^ as 
 leading us to see that after all morality is founded in the 
 nature of man, and that every moral act is connected with 
 every other as an inseparable part of one great whole. It 
 teaches us, moreover, that there are certain parts of the 
 mind which touch morality more closely than others, and 
 hence it shows us that if we desire to influence another 
 character, we must attack it in certain ways. Moreover, 
 it co-ordinates all the disjointed knowledge we have 
 already obtained on the several duties, and so we come to 
 see that morality is not haphazard, but has a logical 
 order, and can be based upon logical principles. No one 
 indeed, I should say, can be considered a master of his 
 subject till he is capable of teaching it ; and no one can 
 be secure in teaching morality till he has studied moral 
 philosophy. It will be seldom, perhaps, that he will be 
 forced back to first principles, but occasions may arise. 
 And similarly no one can be sure of his conduct till he 
 can give reasons for each act; if he has not the reason 
 behind him, he is at the mercy of every quibbler, and 
 woe to the man whose moral principles are questioned, if 
 he cannot go back to his ultimate foundation ! But, 
 above all, I would say it is the study of ethics that 
 enables us to train the conscience to a higher level than 
 that suggested by the unthinking rules which get heaped 
 upon it as the ages pass ; it is only by understanding the 
 
248 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 theory of morals, in a more or less complete form, that we 
 can disentangle morality and religion from the meshes in 
 which they get caught and set them free to pursue their 
 own way. Moral education, in short, depends on moral 
 instruction, moral knowledge, and moral thought. 
 
 "But there is a great deal included in moral philosophy 
 that has but a very slight and indirect bearing upon 
 moral practice. And here we have to be on our guard. 
 It is quite possible to be a thorough student of ethics and 
 yet be an immoral man. For moral philosophy appeals 
 chiefly to the intellect ; hence if what is called in popular 
 parlance the heart, in more strict language the emotions 
 and the will, be not right, then we cannot expect that 
 moral philosophy will lead of itself to moral life. It may 
 be the old, old story : — 
 
 ' Video meliora proboque, 
 Deteriora sequor.' 
 
 — I see the good and choose the bad. St. Paul dwelt upon 
 the danger long since in emphatic terms. Do not let us 
 cheat ourselves then with words. It would be the same 
 thing as saying that a man who knew the whole theory of 
 music was therefore a capable musician. Valuable, then, 
 as I hold the study of morals to be when the character 
 has already been well-shaped towards a moral life, I do 
 not claim that it alone can have any direct influence in 
 producing morality. When, however, there is a leaning 
 towards morality, even though it be comparatively slight, 
 I believe that the deeper knowledge which the study of 
 ethics gives, the realization which it brings of the in- 
 herent necessity of morality and of its indissoluble con- 
 nection with the progress of the world, tends, by this 
 greater breadth of view imparted and the stimulus to 
 thought before action is taken, to strengthen and secure 
 what may previously have been but feeble aspirations to 
 a moral life, resting perhaps as much on the fear of 
 public opinion as upon any really moral base. I certainly 
 found it so in my own earlier days." 
 
 ''Dear me, Reynolds," I said, "I should never have 
 thought that your morality was so weak as to have 
 required the study of ethics to prop it securely." 
 
 Reynolds laughed and said : — 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 249 
 
 ''No; I did not quite mean that it was unstable in 
 itself, though I should think it presumptuous to claim 
 that it was very strong ; I do not imagine I was worse, 
 and certainly not better, than the average undergraduate 
 of my day and class. What I meant was that I found 
 the study clinch my theory of morals and set in a clear 
 light some duties which hitherto I had grounded upon 
 empirical considerations and had not been able to com- 
 pletely justify in the abstract. But my position generally 
 is this : that it would be hardly desirable for the world 
 at large to study ethics, as it requires great grasp of 
 mind to follow out all the bearings of the theory, and I 
 fear that, where the intellectual powers are not sufficient 
 to carry the arguments to their logical conclusion, the 
 study might have merely an upsetting effect ; but, on the 
 other hand, I hold that it is very desirable, nay, ab- 
 solutely imperative for the good of the world, that some 
 men should devote themselves to this pursuit, and 
 popularize by degrees the results of their studies in a 
 practical shape, so that we may have a gradual infiltra- 
 tion of the best thought and the highest motives from 
 the thinking classes downwards through society at large. 
 
 "I do not think I need say more on the first of the two 
 aims which I laid down as a chief object for a University 
 to pursue in moral instruction as a whole ; but there are 
 two particular departments to which it would be well to 
 refer, though I do not hold that instruction under these 
 heads should be entirely confined to the University stage. 
 I was hoping to hear them handled by Mr. Trelawney, but 
 as he said nothing about them, I will try to supply his 
 place. The two matters I refer to are the duties which 
 fall upon us, first as parents, secondly as members of a 
 State." 
 
 I was going to defend myself, when Mrs. Hindley said : — 
 
 '' I am glad, Mr. Reynolds, you propose to treat these 
 subjects, and especially the former. I know my husband 
 declared he would dwell upon the matter, but he wickedly 
 forgot all about his promise. So we shall all, I am sure, 
 be the more grateful to you for any help you may give. 
 Without a consideration of parental duty the rest of our 
 scheme would be almost futile, for unless we train parents 
 in the way to train others, we can only rely upon their 
 
250 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 usual vague guesses, and leave matters to be regulated by 
 their own whims ; how fatal a course that is, the history 
 of nearly every home is sufficient to prove. The training 
 of parents in their specific duties, I regard even more than 
 the training of schoolmasters, as the source whence will 
 come the regeneration of the world. And if it is combined 
 with training in citizenship, we shall have covered the 
 whole ground so far as the individual is concerned. Citizen- 
 ship consists partly of a man's duty to himself, partly of 
 his duty to others, while parental duty is concerned with 
 our duty to others from a rather different point of view ; 
 when once the whole man is guided by reason in both these 
 points, then we may look upon our task as achieved. Of 
 course practice will not rise to the height of theory all at 
 once, but at least we shall have an ideal for which to strug- 
 gle, and that surely must be the first advance before we can 
 hope to make steady progress. Failures in actual practice 
 we condone, if only we know an effort is being made." 
 
 "It is amazing," said the Doctor, "how much instruction 
 is wanted in the matter of our ordinary parental duties. 
 The way children are maltreated is a horror and a disgrace. 
 We doctors see more of it than any one else, but there is 
 enough to convince any one who will choose to have open 
 eyes. I am only thinking now of physical mismanagement 
 — neglect of duty from the doctor's point of view. Rousseau, 
 I am told, long since made an attack upon the system of 
 swaddling children, and trying to force them to walk 
 before their legs are strong enough, but since I have been 
 in this big town, where — I suppose from its comparatively 
 rapid growth — ideas have not had such an opportunity of 
 spreading as they do in smaller places which develop less 
 fast, it has made my heart bleed to see how children are 
 forced to keep themselves erect, or at least to try, long 
 before their legs are anything but cartilage. What is the 
 consequence ? For the time they suffer agony, and for the 
 rest of their days are afflicted with misshapen limbs. I 
 never in the whole of my life put together saw so many 
 people with bandy legs as I have seen since I came here. 
 This I give as one instance, and but a simple one, of the 
 harm that may be done by parental ignorance, and, if in 
 what seems so obvious a matter, parents are so utterly 
 incapable of thought, what do we suppose is likely to 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 25 I 
 
 happen in the graver and less obvious sphere of pure 
 morality ? I think you clergymen, Mr. Reynolds, might 
 do much to stop the evil, if in your sermons sometimes 
 you would condescend to such small every-day duties, quit- 
 ting the high altitudes, where so many of you live, of the 
 dogmas and theories of religious thought." 
 
 "I do not think, Dr. Hindley," Rejmolds replied, "if 
 you looked into the case at all narrowly, you would find us 
 so heedless as you suppose. A clergyman's influence is 
 not limited to his pulpit. There is not one of us probably 
 who, in visiting his parishioners, does not give words of 
 advice on such matters as these. But for the present that 
 is neither here nor there ; let us return to consider the 
 training of parents. 
 
 '^ We all admit its imperative necessity ; how is it to be 
 carried out ? Now the training of parents, it seems to me, 
 differs little from complete instruction in precisely that 
 somewhat elaborate scheme we have been considering for 
 so long a time past. Instruction in parental duty is in- 
 struction in education — its proper methods and its proper 
 aims. Hence it follows we must instruct our future parents 
 in the scheme of morality we have here propounded. 
 Parts of it may, it is true, be dropped, or only just lightly 
 touched — in particular, those which specially concern 
 school ; but the main principles must be well fixed in the 
 mind, and, with home education, even the details. And, of 
 course, as we are to train for a duty which covers more 
 than the merely moral sphere, we shall have in regard to 
 this branch of our subject to give specific instruction in 
 the best methods, not merely of imparting moral training, 
 but also of training the intellect and even the body. You 
 see the question becomes one of a knowledge of education, 
 at least from the theoretical side. In fact, training in 
 education must be the final end of all other moral training 
 whatever." 
 
 " Herbert Spencer's position very nearly," I said. 
 
 " Dear me," said Mr. Rejmolds, " I did not know I was 
 trenching upon his preserves. I do not suppose I should 
 often agree with him ; but I am glad if I am supported 
 by so great a thinker. However, you see what a vast work 
 we have undertaken, unless indeed, you deny — and I sin- 
 cerely hope you will not — that such is in reality the proper 
 
252 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 end of our moral training. The only question is — when 
 can this last point be tackled ? Now much of the work, 
 it seems to me, falls properly within the sphere of the 
 school, and that for two reasons : one, that as we are at 
 school instilling moral principles, coupled more and more 
 with the foundation on which they rest, it will hardly 
 be going out of our way to show that the rules we are then 
 formulating will admit of application by the children 
 themselves to those whom, when they have reached matur- 
 ity, it will fall to their lot to direct ; the other, that so few 
 will ever proceed to the University that, if we postpone 
 the matter till then, we shall give no instruction to the 
 vast majority at all. Hence, I certainly think it would 
 have been well had Mr. Trelawney treated the subject 
 when discussing the work to be done at school." 
 
 " The reason," I said, " why I did not do so was that I 
 thought we had agreed to accept all that Professor Adler 
 proposed unless we specifically notified dissent. Now 
 Professor Adler does treat of parental duty, though not, 
 perhaps, at great length ; hence, I thought myself justified 
 in disregarding the topic, or rather, I should say, in not 
 specially mentioning it." 
 
 " Does he elaborate a scheme ? " 
 
 " No ; he treats it as arising out of filial duty — I do not 
 mean in the natural order of things, but in his order of 
 treatment. It is true it is a very short discussion which 
 he gives, but it seems to me on the right lines, and enough 
 to remind his readers that it is an essential part of moral 
 instruction." 
 
 " I see ; but I must confess I think it rather awkward if 
 we are to be constantly referring to him to supplement our 
 own scheme." 
 
 " If we are to repeat all that is good in others," I said, 
 " we shall never end." 
 
 " True, no doubt ; but what if we have not read the 
 book?" 
 
 " Get it, and read it ; seldom would money be better 
 invested." 
 
 " Well, I will do so, but meantime will just finish what 
 I had to say about this particular point. Granted then 
 that much may be done at school towards giving that in- 
 struction in parental duty which we desire, — and I should 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 253 
 
 like to say in passing that such instruction is sure to be 
 popular as it makes children look ahead and realize their 
 responsibilities, and if there is one thing children like it is 
 having the sense of their own importance recognised, and 
 being treated as capable of managing others, — it will only 
 remain for the University to carry further the somewhat 
 piecemeal knowledge of the subject that has been gained at 
 school, and to organize it into a scientific whole. In this 
 sphere, in fact, the work of the University will be much 
 the same as in ethical investigation. The tjniversity will 
 reduce to a science what were previously scattered 
 thoughts ; it will bring order into what may have been 
 more or less chaos. 
 
 " Before I leave this topic I should like to say how great 
 will be our difficulty, a difficulty we have, I think, men- 
 tioned before, in securing any great advance in current 
 morality for a long time to come, owing to the unfortunate 
 circumstance that it is precisely those who need such 
 instruction most who leave school earliest, and are, there- 
 fore, least likely to get it systematically. Perhaps as the 
 world grows older school time may be extended, till every 
 one is kept so long under control that he has reached 
 years of comparative discretion before he is allowed to 
 shift for himself. But that result I fear will not be just 
 yet, and will in itself imply a great advance in the moral 
 tone of the world at large. Meantime, I am afraid the 
 elementary schoolmasters have thrust upon them the 
 heaviest burden of all instructors — the effort to make some 
 lasting impression in the direction of sound morality by 
 the time the children are twelve or thirteen, which impres- 
 sion shall continue to grow and bear fruit increasingly 
 from generation to generation. Let us only pray that 
 their efforts may be successful. 
 
 " Instruction in civic duty I still have to tackle. I do 
 not intend to lay down a scheme of actual instruction. I 
 am regarding the question solely from the moral point of 
 view, and in this way it seem-s to me it is simply an exten- 
 sion of that duty towards our neighbour, which is one of 
 the leading features in any system of morality. For 
 the same reason, I think, it would have been well if Mr. 
 Trelawney had discussed the subject and not I ; though the 
 University stage may give a broader and more living 
 
254 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 aspect to the matter, I do not see how it can be passed 
 over at school. Indeed, I think it springs naturally from 
 two sets of lessons — those on morality and those on history. 
 It is the final summary of our duty towards our neighbour, 
 and the more to be emphasized, because in this case oui' 
 neighbour is not an individual able to make known the 
 wrong he has suffered, but a body, to whom if harm is 
 done, it will often be spread over so wide an area as to 
 lead us to think, as Mr. Trelawney has shown, that no 
 harm has been done at all. But I suppose, Trelawney, 
 you said nothing about it, because it is treated by Adler, 
 eh?" 
 
 " Yes, precisely." 
 
 " Oh well, it is a pity then that you have not given us 
 a complete statement of what on the one hand we shall 
 find in that book, and what on the other we have to 
 supply ourselves." 
 
 " I think, if you remember, Reynolds," I said, ''I last 
 time gave you an outline sketch of the subjects treated, 
 and one of them certainly was civic duty." 
 
 " I must have forgotten then, and can only apologise. 
 But in the matter of civic duty I should like to lay down 
 a caution similar to that which I gave about ethics ; it is 
 that any amount of knowledge and instruction in our duty 
 will not make us do it, unless the will is right. And next 
 appears another difficulty: the term civic duty has a 
 double meaning which I think is likely to lead to disap- 
 pointment for those who are so keen on introducing the 
 subject into our schools and continuation classes — I mean 
 that it may cover a consideration of two distinct things : 
 our moral duties simply as duties, and the practical aspect 
 of the different functions of the various members of the 
 body politic and the place we ourselves have to fill among 
 them. The instruction, that is, may consist simply of an 
 intellectual side, giving the knowledge, for instance, of 
 the duties of a policeman, or of a mayor, it may be, or 
 board of guardians. Now that is practically nothing to 
 morality ; it is not that we want now. Our business here 
 in treating of civic duty is to show what it is right for a 
 citizen to do — to vote, for instance, at elections, not to be 
 led astray by claptrap, to think out problems for himself, 
 to actively strive to prevent official jobbery, and a thousand 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 255 
 
 otlier points of a similar kind — a matter very different, I 
 rather fancy, from what some who have advocated the 
 subject so strongly have really had in view. These are 
 topics which clearly come under the heading of morals, 
 and it will be the duty of the trainers in morals at the 
 University to take up the threads on these points where 
 they have been dropped at school, and connect them to- 
 gether in such a way as to lead to the fundamental prin- 
 ciples on which all such duties rest. The intellectual 
 instruction on the subject will, no doubt, take precedence 
 — that is to a large extent inevitable ; Wt so far as our 
 present purpose is concerned, we shall have to cut out 
 much of what is called civic duty from the other point of 
 view, and above all things bear in mind that our aim is 
 morality, not acquaintance with practical business. 
 
 "And the University has one special advantage in dealing 
 with this particular subject. I have already said that 
 at the University there should be no discipline save the 
 discipline of conscience. Now I believe it is a rule at our 
 two great Universities that undergraduates are not allowed 
 to attend political meetings ; — I am not quite sure, because 
 at the time I was up there was no political election on ; — 
 all I can say is, that if the facts are really so, there has 
 been a serious error of judgment, leading to the neglect of 
 one of the finest opportunities a young man could possibly 
 have of applying the principles he has learnt in theory to 
 real practice. For consider the state of things as we 
 would have them be. A young man comes up on our 
 system with his heart and mind full of a sense of duty, 
 and the principles which are to be his guide throughout 
 life. At an election while he is still an undergraduate 
 and a student, he has a chance of seeing the difference 
 between the usual morality of political life, and that 
 nobler standard to which he has been led to aspire. He is 
 still undergoing ethical instruction, and if he feels tempted 
 to side with a party to the neglect of his own loftier 
 principles, he has at least the chance of having his errors 
 pointed out to him and redeeming his mistakes by being 
 helped to think out questions in a more dispassionate and 
 scientific spirit than will in any likelihood ever be the 
 case hereafter. If he has strong prejudices, as most young 
 men have, founded upon no sort of decent reason, then he 
 
256 MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 can, perhaps, be guided to see wherein his error lies. But 
 in after-life where can he look for such help ? It should 
 be part of the duty of moral instructors at the University 
 to discuss all political questions from the purely moral 
 standpoint, throwing aside, so far as possible, all personal 
 bias, and to not merely encourage, but even command their 
 pupils to go to political meetings and report on the 
 way in which the arguments advanced disregarded true 
 morality. I can imagine no method better calculated to 
 check sophisms, and do something to raise the tone of 
 political life. I know that people would say it is utterly 
 impracticable, but I do not think so, if only tw^o conditions 
 Avere realized : first, an honest attempt in this direction, and 
 secondly, the existence of the kind of undergraduate whom 
 we are supposing our system to produce. 
 
 " This consideration, indeed, has brought me to the great 
 advantage which I consider the University has in the 
 matter of moral training— the opportunity of direct 
 practice, especially in those larger social virtues which a 
 boy's age, and the conditions of school prevent him from 
 directly touching before. In fact, I should say of the 
 University that it is, or should be, the practising school of 
 social ethics, giving the final burnishing touches before 
 the finished product is turned out into the world to show" 
 by wear and tear of what value it is. It is like what 
 a training college should be ; the knowledge should be 
 largely possessed before entrance, and then the University 
 should provide incessant opening for applying rules to 
 practice under guidance and correction. Of course the 
 more elementary virtues, and especially the self-regarding 
 ones, will in most cases have had ample means of practise 
 afforded them both at school and at home ; but with the 
 political and social virtues on a great scale it is not so, 
 and I would have the University largely turned into a field 
 for practice in these particulars. Not merely such matters 
 as political elections can be brought within the sphere of 
 morality in some such way as I have suggested, but all 
 branches of philanthropy can be carefully studied, not in 
 the abstract and from books merely, but by taking actual 
 part in philanthropic work, seeing the true condition of the 
 poor, collecting statistics, and trying remedies on a small 
 scale, all under the guidance of those who have longer 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 257 
 
 experience, and are able to keep clearly burning before them 
 the bright light of pure morality. If the University would 
 devote itself to some such work as this, a vast deal might 
 be done to check vague vapourings about the condition of 
 the poor ; as it is now, instead of having the thousands of 
 undergradutes all brought into personal contact with 
 their poorer brethren and learning to know the realities of 
 life, we have to content ourselves with the few dozen who 
 touch the subject practically at the University, and those, 
 I fear fewer still, who after going down can and do reside 
 for a time in some University settlement, where, good as 
 the work is, it is so far at a disadvantage, that it is often 
 difficult to find time to discuss the questions in the ab- 
 stract, and where in any case we are no longer in a little 
 oasis, as it were, cut off from the world, with our sole or 
 main duty to treat all such questions from the purely 
 moral point of view. To couple the practice with the final 
 stage of instruction seems to me natural, and the culmin- 
 ating point of our whole scheme ; I can but hope therefore 
 that you will approve of my proposals, for one and all of us 
 are agreed that morality must be our main aim, and that 
 without morality — to which I would also join religion — 
 life would be an impossibility, nothing less than a hell 
 upon earth. This danger it is our duty to do our utmost 
 to remove further and further into regions of banishment, 
 till that great time shall at last come when sin shall be 
 no more, and the bright light of heaven shall shine over 
 all even here upon this our weary earth." 
 
 Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London. 
 
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