PHILISTINISM AND OVER-WORK. lack that first great gift, the vital soul, Subordinate helpers of the living mind.-Prelude, i. 9. 287 But the "vital soul" is too often crushed by excessive routine labor, and then when general truths, both moral and intellectual, have ceased to interest us, our own education stops, and we become incapable of fulfilling the highest and most important part of our duty in educating others. It is, then, the duty of the teacher to resist gravitating into this state, no less for his pupils' sake than for his own. The ways and means of doing this I am by no means competent to point out; so I will merely insist on the importance of teachers not being overworked a matter which has not, I think, hitherto received due attention. We can not expect intellectual activity of men whose minds are compelled "with pack-horse constancy to keep the road" hour after hour, till they are too jaded for exertion of any kind. The man himself suffers, and his work, even his easiest work, suffers also. It may be laid down as a general rule, that no one can teach long and teach well. All satisfactory teaching and management of boys absolutely require that the master should be in good spirits. When the " genial spirits fail," as they must from an overdose of monotonous work, everything goes wrong directly. The master has no longer the power of keeping the boys' attention, and has to resort to punishments even to preserve order. His gloom quenches their interest and mental activity, just as fire goes out before carbonic acid; and in the end teacher and taught acquire, not without cause, a feeling of mutual aversion. And another reason why the master should not spend the greater part of his time in formal teaching is this-his doing so compels him to neglect the informal but very important teaching he may both give and receive by making his pupils his companions. I fear I shall be met here by an objection which has only too much force in it. Most Englishmen are at a loss how to make any use of leisure. If a man has no turn for thinking, no fondness for reading, and is without a hobby, what good shall his leisure do him? He will only pass it in insipid gossip, from which any easy work would be a relief. That this is so, in many cases, is a proof, to my mind, of the utter failure of our ordinary education; and perhaps an improved education may some day alter what now seems a national peculiarity. Meantime the mind, even of Englishmen, is more than a "succedaneum for salt,"* and its tendency to bury its sight ostrich-fashion, under a heap of routine work, must be strenuously resisted, if it is to escape its deadly enemies, stupidity and ignorance. I have elsewhere expressed what I believe is the common conviction of those who have seen something both of large schools and of small, viz., that the moral atmosphere of the former is, as a rule, by far the more wholesome;† and also that each boy is more To so much bloated flesh as scarce hath soul Instead of salt, to keep it sweet, I think Will ask no witnesses to prove." BEN JONSON: The Devil is an Ass, Act i., sc. 3. † I have quoted De Quincey on this subject (supra, p. 72, note). Here is the testimony of a schoolmaster to the same effect. Mr. Hope, in his amusing "Book about Dominies," says, that a school INFLUENCE OF THE ELDER BOYS. * 289 influenced by his companions than by his master. More than this, I believe that in many, perhaps in most, schools, one or two boys affect the tone of the whole body more than any master. What are called Preparatory Schools labor under this immense dis advantage, that their ruling spirits are mere children without reflection or sense of responsibility. But where the leading boys are virtually young men, these may be made a medium through which the mind of the master may act upon the whole school. They can enter into the thoughts, feelings, and aims of the master on the one hand, and they know what is said and done among the boys on the other. The master of from twenty to a hundred boys is too large to be altogether under the influence of one man, and too small for the development of a healthy condition of public opinion among the boys themselves. "In a community of fifty boys, there will always be found so many bad ones who will be likely to carry things their own way. Vice is more unblushing in small societies than in large ones. Fifty boys will be more easily leavened by the wickedness of five, than five hundred by that of fifty. It would be too dangerous an ordeal to send a boy to a school where sin appears fashionable, and where, if he would remain virtuous, he must shun his companions. There may be middle-sized schools which derive a good and healthy tone from the moral strength of their masters, or the good example of a certain set of boys, but I doubt if there are many. Boys are so easily led to do right or wrong, that we should be very careful at least to set the balance fairly” (p. 167); and again he says (p. 170), "The moral tone of a middle-sized school will be peculiarly liable to be at the mercy of a set of bold and bad boys." "The moral tone of the school is made what it is, not nearly so much by its rules and regulations or its masters, as by the leading characters among the boys. They mainly determine the public opinion amongst their schoolfellows-their personal influence is incalculable." I quote these words of a master whose opinion is respected by all who know him, because I have been thought to express myself too strongly on this point. must, therefore, know the elder boys intimately, and they must know him. This consummation, however, will not be arrived at without great tact and self-denial on the part of the master. The youth, who is "neither man nor boy," is apt to be shy and awkward, and is not by any means so easy to entertain as the lad who chatters freely of the school's cricket or foot. ball, past, present, and to come. But the master who feels how all-important is the tone of the school, will not grudge any pains to influence those on whom it chiefly depends. But, allowing the value of all these indirect influences, can we afford to neglect direct formal religious instruction? We have most of us the greatest horror of what we call a secular education, meaning thereby an education without formal religious teaching. But this horror seems to affect our theory more than our practice. Few parents ever inquire what religious instruction their sons get at Eton, Harrow, or Westminster. I am told that, in amount at least, it is quite insignificant; and I can myself vouch for the fact, that once upon a time the lower forms at one of these had no religious instruction except a weekly lesson in Watts' "Scripture History." Even in some national schools, where the managers would rather close their doors altogether than accept the "Conscience-clause," the religious instruction is confined to teaching the Catechism by heart, and using the Bible as a readingbook. In this matter we differ very widely from the Germans. All their classes have a "religion-lesson (Religionstunde) nearly every day, the younger children in the German Bible, the elder in the Greek RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 291 Testament or Church History; and in all cases the teacher is careful to instruct his pupils in the tenets of Luther or Calvin. The Germans may urge that if we believe a set of doctrines to be a fitting expression of Divine revelation, it is our first duty to make the young familiar with those doctrines. I can not say, however, that I have been favorably impressed by the religion-lessons I have heard given in German schools. I do not deny that dogmatic teaching is necessary, but the first thing to cultivate in the young is reverence; and reverence is surely in danger if you take a class in "religion" just as you take a class in gramEmerson says somewhere, that to the poet, the saint, and the philosopher, all distinction of sacred and profane ceases to exist, all things become alike sacred. As the schoolboy, however, does not as yet come under any one of these denominations, if the distinction ceases to exist for him, all things will become alike profane. mar. I believe that religious instruction is conveyed in the most impressive way when it is connected with worship. Where the prayers are joined with the reading of Scripture, and with occasional simple addresses, and where the congregation have responses to repeat, and psalms and hymns to sing, there is reason to hope that boys will increase, not only in knowledge, but in wisdom and reverence too. Without asserting that the Church of England service is the best possible for the young, I hold that any form for them should at least resemble it in its main features, should be as varied as possible, should require frequent change of posture, and should give the congregation much to say and sing. The Church of Rome is wise, I think, in |