New Britain herald., 1925-07-27

one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open and read therein. A great historian has re- gently said these seven seals were the seven great ignorances of man,
 "UDNo one knew--says this his- torian-of mans physical nature,
 @ the workings of his thoughts
 and desires, (3) of the world in
 which he lives, (D of how he has
 como about as a race, (5) of how he
 develops as an individual from
 tiny egg, (6) how deeply and per
 manently he is affected by the often | forgotten impressions of infancy and
 childhood. CD how his ancestors
 lived for hundreds of thousands of
 years in the dark ignorance of say
 agery.
 Tt has taken labor and blood and
 anguish and war to break these seals
 and now the attempt Is made to
 close and reseal this book. Now
 with the book open it should be our
 duty to help man to read therein
 and we seek to shut out the great
 truths that are there found. For 1t is indeed truth alone that will set
 us free. This struggle that Is re-
 opened in America--would have
 been laughed out of court by St,
 Augustine who made clear the divid-
 ing line between natural laws and
 moral laws (4oo A. D. Wesley the
 great founder of Methodism-an
 evolutionst. This attitude of the
 fundamentalists would have been
 laughed out of court by the deeply
 religious scientists of all ages--New-
 ton and Thomson and Kelvin and
 Maxwell and above all the saintly
 Pasteur who has inscribed on his
 tomb. Happy is he who carries a
 God within him, an ideal of beauty to which he is obedient-an ideal of art and ideal of science, an ideal of
 the fatherland, an Ideal of the vir- tues of the gospel"
 You shall know the truth and the
 truth shall make you free. It is ab- surd to attempt to stem the tide of human striving. And is surely un' 7 American to attempt to foist a re- ligion of any sort upon American , life
 But Is this not Christian coun, try-perhaps aps-but there are others who are not and we have the con stitution to guarantee the safety , from interference of any sort o f bigotry of the majority.
 But further you will ask has no , the legislature elected by the people I the right to tell It's employees jus I what they want taught? By al , means-the legislature can outline the curriculum. It can surely sa! V that no biology be taught--that n'
 science be taught-but If they d' & put 1t in the curriculum then 1t mus f be taught by scientists and not b, ? sectarians of any sort. In truth i q ought to be the duty of educators f experts to care for schools-we d e not call lawyer to diagnose a cas = of illness-we do not call in politi 6 clan to determine the proper adjust l. ment of scientific instruments-wh t. then should we permit legislators [ 6 tell us what ought to be taught an j. what ought not to be.
 I've have no holier possessio l. than the mind of the child and e count as criminal-nothing less-t Is teach that child anything at all tha 1T he may have to unlearn later on. - hold it breach of faith to bind th n mind of the child so that he will nt ot know and understand.
 le If we in America today do n' le take heed the most fantastically al q surd thing of the age will become Is fact. For we have a weakness of q IS absurdties. There are two classe e that count in America-the uppt 't aristocracy and the lowest poor an y foreigner-the middle class follows '- The great led by demagogue-ca ls make them see the need of certai 'l restrictive measures for the lowe Il cIasss and they in turn are helple' V while the foreigner becomes " bellieerent follower of all that " accepted in the fear that he will nt t0 be tolerated.
 's And the law of the fundamental ,d ist wilI-unless stopped by II ,. courts will become the law of tf of land. Then there will arise agai tc the division in the educational li ,1, of this country. Parochial schoo .y of all sorts will spring up. Thel NV will he repeated the same mess thi ,v has taken place in England ar
 Wales. Read the Leslie report as as these-some 12,ooo-schools in Eni .d land-the state of the education ,e the state of the buildinEs-the Ii a crease in rartisanship. The repo n cannot of course give the spirtu e. loss Of this sort of division of schools. But it is safe to say tn
 the darkness and the dinginess he the buildings, the careIessness in Il ne choice of the teachers has in the E. years of the existence of the syste IS, brought physical darkness and spir re tual night, There Is a tradition ne America that must at all costs ge maintained. There is a monume s- at the spot where Bruno was burn' lls at stake for his heresies-with Il no legend erected by generati' -V P-Y -