Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-12-10
Huxley ON the Rit,le.

81 have always" says Professor Huxley, ''been
strongly in favGr of secular education in the
sense of education without theology; but
must confess l have been no less seriously per-
picked to know by what practical measures the
religious feeling. which is the essential basis OF
conduct, was to be kept up, in the present ut
terly chaotic state of opinion on these matters.
without the use of the Bible. The Pagan NOR
alsts lack life and color; and even the noble
Stole, Marcus AntOnus,. is too high and refined
for an ordinary child Take the Bible as a
criticism can dictate for shortcomings and
positive errors; eliminate as a sensible law
teacher would do, if left to himself, all that is
not desirable for children to occupy themselves
Wlth,-and there still remains in this old litera-
ture vast residuum of moral grandeur. And
then consider the great historical fact that for
three centuries this book has been woven into
the life of all that is best and noblest in English
history; that it has become the national epic of
Britain, and is familiar to noble and simple.
from John OGrOats house to Lands End as
Dante and TassO were once to the Italians; that
it is written in the nOblest and purest English.
and abounds in exquisite beauties of merely
literary form; and, finally, that it fOrbids
the veriest hind, who never left his village. to
be ignorant of the existence of other countries
and other civilizations and of great past.
stretching back to the furthest limits of the
oldest nations in the world. By the study of
WDaC Otner DOCKS could children be so much
humanized. and made to feel that each figure in
that vast historical procession fills. like them
selves, but mOmentaary space in the interval
between the two eternities, and earns the bless
ings or the curses of all time. according to it's
effort to do good and hate evil even as they are
earning their payment for their work?
land if Bible-reading is not accompanied by
cOnstraint and sOlemnlty as if it were sacra-
| mental operation. do not believe there is any
thing in which children take more pleasure. At
least. know that some of the pleasantest rec
objections of my childhood are connected with
the voluntary study of an ancient Bible which
belonged to my grandmother. There were
splendid pictures in it, to be sure; but recOl-
lect little or nothing about them save pOr-
trait OF the high priest in his vestments What
comes wildly back to my mind are remem-
brances OF my delight in the histories of Joseph
and David, and of my keen appreciation of
the chivalrOus kindness OF Abraham in
his dealings with Lot. Like sud-
den flash there returns back upon
me my utter scorn of the pettifogging meanness
of Jacob and my sympathetic grief over the
heart-breaking lamentation Of the cheated
Esan, Hast thou not blessing for me also. o
my father!' And see, as in cloud, pictures
OF the grand phantasmagoria of the book of
Revelation.
II enumerate, as they issue, the childish I'm
pressions which come crowdin9 out of the pig
eOn-hOles in my brain, in Which they have lain
| almost undistnrbed for forty years. prize
them as an evidence that child Of five or six
years old. left to his own devices, may be deeply
interested in the Bible, and draw sound moral
sustenance from it. "-Conten,poa'y Reoieso.