New-York tribune., 1884-03-23
HOW I'VE PRFP4RE OUR SUCCESSORS.

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HOW WE PREPARE OUR SUCCESSORS.
A correspondent in another column brings his
perplexities concerning what he calls the new
education to the bar of public opinion, and ASKS
for discussion of the important question OF Its
effects upon the rising generation. lie asserts
that children noyaday are brought up to think
only of themselves, and he expresses the opln-
ion that this kind of training is responsible tor
the increase of infelictous marriages, and con-
seauently for the prevalence OF divorce ana
domestic misery. OF course 1t may be saiu 'haI
any generalizatiOns upon these subjects are sure
to involve exaggeration; but admitting TINS
there is certainly much truth in Reformers
account of the tendencies he refers to, ana IL
cannot be altogether useless to give the subject
some serious consideration.
Undoubtedly that method of training children
which aims at smoothing their path so etfectu-
ally that they learn nothing OF self -sacrlllce
self-represson or Difference to the wishes OF
Others. must tend to cultivate in them the low
est forms of selfishness must educate them In
the belief that their individuality is OF supreme
importance and must by consequence unnt
them for the proper performance of those social
and domestic duties which demand reciprocal
surrenders at every step The child who has
been brought up without discipline, whose
po1ents have INDUCED his every caprice, In
whom the spirit of reverence has never been
awakened. will be an offensive egotlst lntoler-
ant of contradiction in any form, and incapable
of making any allowances for those who are
brought in contact with him. Such children
there are at the present day beyond dodDt ana
the future prepared for them cannot be either
happy or prosperous.
But il is when they come to marry that the
most serious consequences OF their vicious
training appear Two young people so
brought up, and tied together by marriage,
must inherit unusually sweet tempcrS IL they 90
not speedily quarrel, and in the most hopeless
wav For with n training destitute or all IN
structon in sclf-abncgatiOn, there Is no basis Ior
COMPROMISE on concession; and marriage Is es-
sentially a system of reciprocity, i'll which NUT
nal surrender affords the only guarantee Tor
happiness. UnselGslness is indeed the goal OF
all the higher philosophy, and the most modern
doctrine only rcprOduces the fundamental
axioms of Christianity in this respect. But
there can be no altruism without experimental
discipline and those who have not learned In
childhood and youth the great lesson OF SELF
sacrifice are not likely to assimilate ii in adult
life.
The impatience of matrimonial friction which
ia one of the marked tendencies OF the time may
be traced to the too general deficiency OF early
| training. and it would be easy to pursue the
| illustration into other relations of life, and to
| show how the same cultivated egOtism intensl-
| fes evil passions, paralyzes conscience, gives
yenial aspect to immortality, and alike i'll politics,
,,,J atfrrpt
and material inclinations and obscure and de-
| feat more noble and elevating influences. The
theory upon which the new education is based
| is in truth fatally defective in ascrbing to un-
developed intelligence a capacity for inference
which when it exists is the product OF teaching
| and experience Children are not unsellish,
reverent, considerate, by nature, or very rarely ;
| and unless they are taught these virtues, they
| will never possess them. Moral suaslon cannot
| be relied Oh as the sole means OF restraint Ii II
| is so relied on, the experiment ends IN con
yincing the child that there is nothing to hinder
| it from doing rs it pleases. This is how most OF
| the attempts to adopt Herbert Spencers spe-
| cious educational doctrine have hitherto Ie-
suited, and we now see the consequences OF
| this philosophy in the deterioration OF manners,
| In the abnormal development of egotism, and III
| the alarming increase of marital wrecks.
The attempt to dispense with the hOmely
| Christian virtues which our ancestors priced
| and practsed has in fact not been successful.
| We have imported into our civilization bar
barrie selfshness, an infexibiity of character
which prevents harmonious assimilation, and
| nm irrcverence which gives fresh force to the
materialism of the age, and which comes IN AID
| of all the disintegrating and demorallzlng
agencies in operation. But most of all are the
evil effects of this crude philosophy seen in the
! marriage relation, for there the very founda-
tions of the State are assailed, and in the dis
| ruption and degradation of the family bond
| the whole future of the Nation is threatened.
The recent alarm caused by smoky chimney i'll
| the Hall of Records should remind the people OF
| New-York that documents on which claims to
thousands of millions of dollars rest are subject