Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-07-21
/" VINDEX F."
Is Fearful that the Proposed Establish
ment OF a NOn-Sectariau school
is n bad Investment-Thati Ii
Will Necessarily Exclude
Moral Culture.
Quotations from the Duke OF yelling
ton, Whitelaw Reid, and Other
MAgnates, showing what a
Terrible Thing It is
not to have Moral
Culture

informed that an effort is being made to es-
tablish a nom sectarian school in Mempis, and
it is asserted that this school shall be opened
with the express understanding that neither
the word religion, nor anything relating to
religious instruction shall be mentioned In
its classes. To establish an educational in
stitution on such basis Is emphatlcally to
exclude moral culture, which is the most i'm
poy-tant element OF true education. II moral
training be excluded from school, then its
workings will consist merely In 1mparting In
struction in the necessary and useful branches
of science. There can be no moral culture
unless founded on the fundamental truths of
christianity, and, if the teacher be prohibited
from impressing upon the minds OF the pu
pills the great and important truths of the
existence of God. the Immortality OF the
soul, that there is heaven and hell, the
certainty ofeternal rewards and punishments
in the next life." etc., he is deprived of
the only one and sure means of teaching
them how to make right and proper use
of the secular knowledge which they are ac-
curing. The exclusion of the fundamental
truths of christianity from any educational
institution or system will. in real fact, result
in nothing more nor less than In bringing up
a set of intidels. On this subject the Duke of
Wellington says: Secular instruction with
out moral culture, based on the great truths
of christianity, can result only in bringing up
smart rogues." Hon. John Eaton, our dis
tinguished commissioner of education, says:
Educators may we'll seriously inquire wheth-
err the tendency of the systems they are con-
Quoting are as thoroughly promotive of the
practice of virtue as they ought to be and can
be. Is not the standard of promotion =
limited too exclusively to intellectual
attainments, and not sufficiently inclusive of
the moral character, or that resultant ex-
pressed by the one word, 'conduct?' Are
there not here suggested profound reasons
for a revision of our ideas on education?
If the demand in the schools and for promo
ton in the various spheres of life is for in
tellectual sharpness only, can we expect the
young to value or produce much else? Yet
no one contemplating the means of pro-
noting individual good or the public welfare
can be satisfied with an education which so
intensifes intellectual activity as TO overlook
the necessity for the training and direction of
the moral nature" DIR. Taylor Lewis remarks
with force: "Experince has abundantly shown
that no amount Of mere fact knOiOled0e, or of
scientific knowledge, in the restricted mod
ern sense of the term, can giUe security that
the man possessing ii may not turn out a
monster Of crime and a deadly scOurge to
society. Evidence is constantly
accommodating that the processes of the bur-
glar, of the incendiary, of the counterfeiter,
of the poisoner, of the railroad destroyer, of
the prison breaker, of the abortionist, ETC.,
are actually. making progress with the
progress of crime. The
same may be maintained in respect
to what may be called the more
speculative knowledge. When wholly desti-
tute, as it may be, of moral truth and moral
intuitions, it can only wake up the dormant,
faculties of the soul for the discovery of evil,
and make them all the more acute for its per-
petration." We can at once perceive that
no amount of scientific knowledge will be of
intrinsic value to young man if eventually
he becomes drunkard, defaulter, a coun-
terfeiter, debauchee, ETC., and yet this is
the everyday result OF the systems which ex.
clude moral training. Human nature, of
itself, is inclined to corruption, and unless
the parent and educator combine their efforts
In the moral culture of youth, they fail IN the
highest and most important duties of their
calling on earth Each day the press Of our
country is filled with tissue Of crimes, which
proclaims loudly and most emphatically that
there are too many schools through
out the land in which secular learn
ing alone is acquired, without moral culture.
An education, consisting Of moral training in
connection with instruction In all the neces-
sary and useful branches of the arts and SCI
ences, is the only sure thing that can stem
the great current of infdelity, dishonesty, in
temperance, communism, incendiarism and
the most shameful vice of impurity which
now disgraces society with such appalling
frequency. Moral culture is to scientific
knowledge what virtue is to society, what
health is to locality, what honesty Is In the
administrators of estates, financial institu-
tons or government offices; what the skilled
use of tools is to the mechanic, what the care
full and correct record of each entry is to a
book keepers accounts, etc. Moral cul-
ture consists in training the youthful mind
to q right and correct use of all scientific
knOoledge. Moral culture is but another
term for good, sound principle. The gen.
tlemen about to establish a non-sectarian
school are known to be men of learning and
and 1t is very remarkable that
they should have lost sight of the most i'm
portant element of true education. These
gentlemen are very competent to manage
the peculiar business in which they are en-
gagged, whether they be lawyers, merchants,
ETC.; but they are hardly competent, in
the short leisure between business hours, to
arrive at a correct conclusion on SO i'm portant
a matter as education" which has for years
and ages taxed the ablest minds of Europe
and America. The importance of securing
the very best education for children is forci-
bly, shown by Whitelaw Reid in the follow
ing words: There is no place In the public
I" service where bad or inefficient work is
more to be deplored than in the teaching
Sc of children. If laws are badly made, you
can repeal them. If courts do not rule
Justly, you can turn out the judges. If
"your rulers steal, your money can send
them to BlackwelFs Island. But if the
" schools are ill-managed; if the children are
led astray, or even not led arSght, you are
poisoning the life-b blood of the communi-
" ty. You might as well economic by mix
&c ing chalk and water with the milk for
your baby as economic by getting igno-
rant people to open the gates of knowledge
for your child or unfit people to mold its
character at the most important age"
VINDEX