The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-04-12

earn his living. 1t is very doubtful whether
"the honesty of the country has been i'm
"proved by the substitution 80 generally Of
'mental education for industrial, and the
"'three Rs if no industrial training has
"gone along with them, are apt, as Miss
"Nightingale observes, to produce fourth
"R-of rascaldom"
Mr.. Froude accepts with qualification
the first principle Of our forefathers, that
every boy born into the world should be put
in the way Of maintaining himself in hon
est independence. No education which
does not make this its first aim is worth
anything. The Ten Commandments are as
obligatory as ever, and practical ability
must still be the back bone of the education
Of every boy who has to earn his bread by
manual labor. Add knowledge afterward;
''but let it be knoapysdge that soiW lead to the
'doiHy better each particular work schich a boy
"is practicing, and every fraction of it will
''then be useful to him" Detached facts
on miscellaneous subjects, as they are
taught at a modern school, are like separ.
ate letters Of endless alphabets. But ar
range your letters into words, and each
word becomes thought, q symbol, waking
in the mind an image Of real thing.
Group your words into sentences, and
thought is married to thought and produces
other thoughts, and what were chips Of
granite become soft bread, wholesome, nu-
tritious and invigorating. Teach boys sub
jects which they can only remember me-
chanically, and they are taught nothing
which it is worth their while to know.
Teach them facts and principles which they
can apply and use in the work Of their lives,
and if the object be to give our clever work
ing lads g chance Of rising to become Pres
idents Of the United States or milloineir es,
the ascent into those conditions will be
easier and healthier than by che paths
which the NEST keenly- -sharpened wits could
be apt to choose for themselves. And,
passing to the learned professions, the stu
dent should learn at the University what
will enable him to earn his living as soon
after he leaves it as possible. The eduoa-
ton could not be completed at the Uaiver-
sity, but the theoretio or scientific ground
work could be learned nowhere 80 we'll.
Mr.. Froude proceeded to say that the prin-
oiple he advocated was Of the earth earthly;
but that as the student would not learn
everything, the only reasonable guide in
such matters was utility. The old saying
Non multa sed multuns was every day becom-
ing more pressingly true.
We had q theory at Oxford, said Mr..
Froude, that our system, however defeo-
tive, yet developed in US some especially
human qualities. The training of clergy
men is, if anything, the special object of
Oxford teaching. There has been thirty
years Of unexampled clerical activity
among us; churches have been doubled,
theological magazines and newspapers have
been poured out by hundreds Of thousands,
while by the side Of it there has sprung up
an equally astonishing development of
moral dishonesty. From the great houses
in the City of London "to the village gro
'oer, the commercial life of England has
sheen saturated with fraud. So deep has
sit gone that q strictly honest 'tradesman
''oan hardly hold his ground against oom-
''petition. We have false weights, false
measures, cheating and shoddy every
"where. Yet the clergy have seen all this
''grow up in absolute Indifference; and the
''great question which at this moment is
'sgitating the Church Of England, is the
''color Of the ecclesiastical pettiooats
''Many hundred sermons have heard in
''Eugland, many a dissertation on the mys-
"teries Of the faith, on the divine mission
'of the clergy, on apostolical succession,
con bishops and justification, and the the
cory of good works and verbal inspiration,
''and the efficacy Of the sacramento but
'never during these thirty wonderful
''years, never one that I can recollect on
'scommon honesty or those primitive COM
''mandments-Thou shalt not lie and thou
''shalt not steal" II, said Mr.. Froude,
the clergy knew as much about England
and Scotland as about Greece and Rome.
and could see what was going on around
them instead Of cropping among books to
find what men did or thought at Alexandria
or Constantinopie, fifteen hundred years
ago, they would grapple more effectively
with the moral pestilenoe which is poison
ing the air. US
Each child that is born among us, con-
tinued Mr. Froude, has right to demand
such teaching as shall enable him to live
with honesty and take such place In
society as belongs to the faculties which he
has brought with him. Upon the breeding
which we give our children, said Mr..
Froude, depends whether England will NO W
descend to . second place among the
nations, or whether it shall have an era 81
brighter glory. Following ont this line Of
thought, Mr.. 'Froude showed what should
be the feelings with which the immirrant
should regard his mother country, and
what had been the reward Of the careless.