Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1886-04-25
EDUCATION.
PART III,

ant branch OF the activity of the New
Commonwealth Let us now consider
what organ is likely to he intnlstrd with
the function of education.
In the discourse before referred to our
Episcopal Mentor also laid it down:
"God has instituted three coordinate
authorities: the Family. the Church and
the State, The Family i, impt7iU0t in
tmpcrj0-a dominion within a dominion;
the parent is exclusive master within
that domimiom,'
Well, we can pretty safely assert to the
contrary that the Coming Commonwealth
will not acknowledge the church Us CO.
ordinate authority"
There was time when he two were
coordinate authorities. At that time it
was still doubtful which of them wa,
destined to be the embodiment Of the
social organism. Out of that struggle
the State has already virtually lsslrd as
the victor: the "Churrh" is in all civil
wed countries already virtually nothing
hut IA voluntary association. 'God" thus
has already decided against the prrtcm-
sions OF the Church; and this. ~ we al
ready noticed in the fifth chapter, l., the
most important step, Perhaps, in the
movement Of the State toward Social
ISM
And we can also be assured that the
Church will not be made the organ of
the State for education purposes
There is one all sufficient reason: tie
ChUch is not competent,
circumstances for centuries gave cdu-
cation into the hands Of the Church, and
she then perhaps performed that tunc-
ton as we'll as could he done Let ~
grant that much, But we are not living
in the middle ages. So far from being
III our age an institution Of enlighten-
ment, the Church is now locked upon 10y
Well-intOrmed people as an institution t.
darken mems minds. We simply state
facts. The men of science assume the
falsty of all Theological dogmas. The
Church is Incompetent because She
knows nothing worth knowing-we are
again simply stating facts. The Church
has still some influence, partly on account
of our hypocrisy, and hypocricy is pre-
vailing as it is, Just because this is a tran
stion aye; but the Coming Democracy
will want to kAoW and will wage an unrc-
lenting war against all Shalns,
We, furthermore. maintain that neither
will the Funiiy be acknowledged co-or-
dinate authority,
This, however, is a much more import
ant assertion than the former, and is not
quite as evident, though ON reflection it
will be found Just rs true. But We can
not fail in passing to remark that IT Is
amusing to see the sulCitude the Church
has for the authority Of the Family now.
when her OWn Importance is on the Wane,
When she had supreme power, She Ger
talnly did not consider the Family co
ordinate with herself
The first evidence We shall adduce to
show that the Coming commonwealth
Will assert supremacy as against the
Family is that which We everywhere
throughout this book place at the mead:
the logic Of events. JHA IN the HtHic
proportion tie state las 0tpuHlierd IT.
SELF, the FamHy has d,riHCiird in iujoH
tu,cc The State commenced to repudi-
ate the 'rdominion Of the Family the
moment it forbade parents to destroy
their children; il absolutely rejected that
"dUminion' the moment if, the State,
fixed the age of majority, when the child
is entirely emancipatrd from parental
control.
Why the system where authority is
vested in the Family. as distinguished
from the State, is that patriarchaI, bar
barrie. system from which we are more
and more retreatng. Proudhon is deer
dedly right when he says: 1T is on the
model of the Family that all fcudaI and
antique societies have organized them
selves, and it is precisely against this old
patriarchal constitution that modern
democracy re,olts and protests. 1t is
yet sometimes said that blood is thicker
than water, but that is not often the
case now; and this fact that the lMdiNid-
ual has become almost independent of
the Family is merely the preparatory
step 10 the supremacy of tir State.