The record-union., 1898-11-22

there because he had something to say.
but because he had to say something.
It was not an easy thing to talk when
he had no topic given him to talk on.
He had some respect for the tramp who
came 70 the woman and handed her
button, asking her to sew a shirt onto
the button; If he had had a subject, no
matter what the subject was, he would
have been able to deliver a good lee
ture. He had recipe for lectures
given him by an English lecturer. The
recipe was as follows: Select a sub
ject of which the people know little
and you know little, and give full swing
to your imagination.
He had been a school teacher, and
hoped that he was still a teacher. One
thing often spoken of was the relation
between the public school and the
church. He said that it was like Dean
Swift's chapter on the snakes of ire
land, in his history of Ireland. There
are no snakes" There is no relation
between the public schools and the
church to-day. They were together at
the beginning, and had the same pur-
like monkey and man, in the theory Of
evolution only sometimes in the latter
instance there is not much difference
after development The men of the
commonwealth originated the idea of
the school system when they declared
that learning may not perish in the
graves of our fathers, be it enacted
that when the population shall num-
hn~~ oI,1 IIr -1,a 10
appointed to teach every one who
wishes to learn to read and write and
SPELL
He next spoke of the place of the
Bible in our public schools. Many of
the Protestants have underrated the
literary power Of the Bible
They teach the literature of Greece
and Rome, but these have not done so
much in the making of this republic
as the literature of the Hebrews.
If a jury of the brightest literary
men were called together to decide on
the highest standard of literature, the
majority of them would decide that
the book of Job was the finest of all
they could gather from various sources.
Van Dyke has collected some of Ten
nyson's poems, showing that many of
the phrases are to be found in the
Bible. One must know the Bible in
order to read Shakespeare intelligently.
and so with Milton and Browning. Some
university students were given an ex-
animation on the place where these
passages were to be found and their
ignorance would have been laughable
were it not so sad. In Canada the
Catholics and Protestants have ar
ranged selections for school reading
from the Bible. The strife between
Catholics and Protestants is wrong, as
they are both anxious for the welfare
of the State.
Morality is as necessary to the well
fare of the State as mentality Intel
lectual ability and moral integrity are
equally desirable in all stations of life,
and we must educate the children NOR
ally as we'll as mentally. The person
ality of the teacher is an important
thing in education. Great reforms have
never been effected by systems, but
by individuals. Not the system, but
the teacher, makes the school, The
teacher is the real mental and moral
power in the education of the individ-
ual.
1t makes no difference how fine the
university building is, if the teacher
does not possess power. A boy at one
end of a log and Mark Hopkins on the
other was a good university. The in
dividuality of the man made the school
at Rugby what it was. Teach by biog-
raphy. Develop in ourselves all the
kind and good and beautiful and it will
wake up in the boys and girls a high
and pure ambition. Wake the possibili-
ties for greatness that lie dormant in
the boys and girls
Ian McLaren has honored two classes
of men, the doctor and the teacher. He
Illustrated what the Domino did with
the lad o. PARTS" The average of chill
dren are not conceited enough. Wake
the intellectual, moral and artistic life
in pupils and send them on their great
career
Teachers are co-workers with God
and no crown is too resplendent for
them. We should hold the teacher in
the highest esteem. Cheap teachers
are a poor investment The public
schools are the highest evidence of the
outcome Of the great Christian civili-
zation.