New-York daily tribune., 1843-07-25
The School Question.

strained to decline or defer them all! we nave
published nearly every official document bearing
upon this question; the long and able report oi
the Public School Society in l64l; that OF the
Snner;ntendent Of Schools in 1928, .embodying
nearly all that could be said on that side, with
tbc Report of the Fourth Ward Commissioners,
and several other papers on the side OF the New
School Law. We do not sec that any thing new
has lately been offered, and We apprellend our
readers would not thank us to give them substan-
tially the old story over again. That we prefer
something different from the plan OF either party
to this contest our readers already know. One
ground Of strong repugnancc on our part to beng
involved in this controversy is its inveterate attl-
nitv for sectarian bitterness and unchautable dog
matisn When our everyday newspapers en-
bark in this sort of strife they usually contrve TO
cxhibi, gross ignorance and commit fragrant IN
Justice. For instance, the Erpress OF yesterday
afternoon, in long Editorial on the Report Of
the Fourth Ward Commissioners and the exclu-
sion of the Received Version of the Scriptures
! from our Public Schools thus dlates:
"we presume the Papss would be perfectly content IT,
Instead Of he Protestant, translation OF the Scriptures Inc
Douay Bible the RheInsh Testament and the DEGREES OF
IN. Council of Trent introduced that the Jews would
he entirely satisfied by the substitution Of the Iamud and
the Unirersast cOutd hare no objection 10 NE common
,srson If The account of 4dGms FGH and oil me pdso-
arc 10 the future punishment of The ,rcked
ged or erpianed Ii Protesans would only yield
these points above named sects, they would probably
to the use o ie DiDe or "ldI reeeu oi ~ III
our common schools.
Now we have always understood the Catholic
position to be this, that the Holy Scriptures arc
improperly if not irrcyercntly used when made
part of District School exercise, and that they
ought not to be so used at all. OF course, if the
Scriptures are to be used, the Catholics would pre-
| fer their own version to one which their Church
condemns as incorrect and herctical--what
! Church would not but have they ever asked
that their version should be adopted and used by
Protestant children in the Public Schools Never,
to our knowledge. Then why are they represented
aswishing to force their version upon others $50
of the Jews we doubt that they would be graft
fed by the use of the Talmud in the Public
Schools; we arc sure that they never asked nor
expected any thing Of the kind.
But the EXPRESSES remarks with regard to Uni
vcrsaliss are still more outrageous. They arc
represented as desiring that passages Of Scripture
of the most indisputable authenticity and lmpor
tance should be erpunged in order to adopt the
Sacred Record to their doctrines and prevent an
exposure of their futility! If this were done we
are told, 'they would probably consent to the use
of the Bible, or what remained Of it, in our COM
mon Schools" Here are several distinct un-
truths. expressed or implied In the first place,
the Universaliss have not objected to the use
ofthe Received Version of the Bible the Schools;
in the next they never intimatcd that the mutlla
ton of the Sacred Writings in the manner sug-
gcsted by the Express would better adaptt to their
taste; and, thirdly, they never proposed any con-
ditions on which it should be used IN schools
without objections from them. The attack Of
the Express upon them is entirely unprovoked
and unwarrantcd.
Let none infer that noe object to Religious
inculcation and especially to the use of the Bible,
in the Education of Yonth. We wish there were
far more of either than there is, though we would
have no violation Of the fullest Liberty Of Con-
science, and no practical abrogation Of that car
dinal principle of our Republican system-thc
absolute equality of all sects and all faiths IN the
eve of the Iaw--not the equality Of all numerous
sccts. but of the Gecblest and most desplsed with
the greatest. While we would constran none to
receive Religious culture, nor even to read the
Bible more especially any particular version OF 1t,
we would rejoice that each should choose TO De
instructed in it's sublime and Strengthening truths.
In this view, we copy from last evenings Com
,nercial the following, heartily approving 1t so far
as it is designed to persuade men that their child
rcn should be instructed in the great truths OF the
Bible though the assumption that the Bible should
be used in our Common Schools because every
one should become acquainted with 1t is quite too
broad for the premises.
Bible In schools.
RY J. oRvLLE TAYLOR.
Religious instruction only can elevate man to
the possession of happiness and civil liberty:
knowledge is power-power to do good, ana
power to do evil; hence knowledge OF wicked
ness is not wisdom. To educate the head only
.sis to arm vice.; for the march OF intellect,
separated from Bible instruction, has always been
the rogue's march. And that progress of mind
winch leaves the Bible in the rear, may be an
1 advance-but it will be like that OF our tlrst pa
rents in Paradise toward the tree OF knowledse-
! the advance OF death.
Said Milton, Imagination's mghtiest son, >
Think
Tbs, liberty from knowledge and religion eer will dwell
Apart, companions they OF heavenly seed conna'e'
And even Lord Byron, who, for the want OF
religion,
Shot madiy from his sphere,
,eFrom the zenith dropped like a meteor star,
Even he was compelled to say
The tree of knowledge is NOT that OF life "
a have known
That knowledge is no, happiness
In proof OF this what terrific illustration was