Year: 1873




VANTAGEs OF TIE PRUssIAN SYSTEM


The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher delivered
lecture Compulsory Education last evening" at Asso
ciation Hail. The hall was filed, and Mr. Beechers fire.
quent touches Of humor were greeted with general
laughter fun report of the lecture will be found be-
low:


Mr.. BEFCHERs ADDRESS.


Although all the great elements of thought fonow on
more or less together in the worlds history yet there
periods In which another OF the great themes
Of human interest and predomnste 30 that 1t seems
almost II there were Of thought as there are
waves in the atmosphere Earliest is the element Of
war, and nations have been given to the con
siderahOn of it and all its correlated inter
est, and 1t seemed to possess the think
ing minds OF certain times almost wholly and then
would come natural politics. not in ts narrower sense
but the rights OF men, the nature OF men, the nature OF
Governments, the duties OF czens-a that belongs TO
social living There have periods when. although
other things thought of these were the dominant
interests Then there has been theology At periods 1t
has dlspossessed almost everything else, subordnated 1t
10 itself Not religion but theology, or the philosophy
of religion which sometimes has been the very ground
work on which all other interests in society we're en-
brodered and it might 1t to me, somewhat tenn
per the almost audaeitf OF theoOgians they should
recoect that the themes that at different periods OF his
tory supplanted all Others and were regarded as the
very piyots which the world, II not the universe II
self turned have their day gone out OF sight and
been forgotten that have hunt for them almost
| in the books of antiquaries


So commerce. industrial elements, and political econ
omies have occupied mems thoughts; but in our own
age element which has never been wanting in in
terest IN times past but never has come TO such
strength and breadth of interest In our day, Is max
ing itself felt education-national education,
for there has been time when education Tor
geniuse education for the children Of aristOcrate
a1u
that fitted sad TO be educated-there never
has been time when there has been interest In
that but in day. national education is the theme
the education Of all from the top to the bottom of
society


THE RIGHT TO DEVELOP ONES SELF.


Now, regarding education simply from the standing
point of the individual 1t is important for him surely
that he should have the whole Of himself No has who
has not educatiOn for like OF the curious
knives which YOU see in cutters windows with 40
blades and the unedueaed is he who has the night
to open only one OF them and all the rest rust In the
handle whereas, the educated man has the night to
every blade and to every OF the functions Of u SO
that the right TO be man. the right to be ree as man
carries with the right OF expanding or Of developing
The right to be an acorn the right TO be oak
and there in nature for the seed both in the
Heaven above and In the soil beneath TO spread itself to
the utmost limit that has been assigned 10 IL in the orig
ina structures Of nature And so there is to every man
on the earth not simply the right to be born to fe but
being born he has the right TO spread himself to the
utmost and that is education.


Looking at in another point OF view. perfect man
hood is sought and from strictly religious standing
point this is the reason Of educatlon-that man may
attain perfect manhood both for this life and for that
which Is 10 come. But when you look at educaton not
in its individual interest and not for merely religious
reason regarding it from the standing point OF pot-
ical economy 1t different interest though not
"a a matter OF
the whole Of the world ia demanding that the people
shall be educated but what Is remarkable Is mat this
ia now coming be the demand OF the Ignorant them
selves for they have been most remss and have least
cared for their deprivation OF knowledge. lgnor-
ance seldom wants intelligence, but there is move
ment among the great masses Of laborlng men now all
over the world and it beginning to dawn them
that the reason Of their much work and small wages,
their depriyaons and degra tions lies in this: that
those who govern them know how to, and they that are
governed do not and they beginning to ask for that
mysterious culture, whatever it be, called education,
and.tO assert their right to 1t.


MOVEMENT OF CHRIsTENDoM.


And governments for other reasons, demanding,
too that the people shall be educated 1t becominga
worldwide question:; at any rate IL Is the universal
movement Of Christendom. In Great Britain, while the
more recent advances in reform have brought TO the
ballot vast mutudes of men, one of the first products
of that is to show Itself In schools and educaon and





is too wlse-but for reformation and she is moving that
way and that too through education.


IL is the question there to-day, not whether but how
and by whom The question is, shall the State educate
or shall the church. That is to say shall schools be
secular OF shall they be seetarlan. Ihere can DC no
doubt which way the question Will be settled. Ihat
question will be settled every nation before 1t can be
settled at all that the State shall educate and not the
priest. tGreat appause1


In oden times when all functions were as yet wrapped
together, before evolution had Differentiated, II may
borrow modern philosophical term, in the hands OF the
priest were almost function OF society In Egypt
the priest was thought TO preside over science and In
struction, and the family belonged 10 him was
however only 70 the favored few that instruction was
permitted; for in Egypt ignorance was a virtue and
knowledge a vice outside Of a certain class.


But in early times the priest the educator, and
when there were none other good, none that had so
much knowledge 1t was but wise thing ana 70 the
priesthood of the Catholic Church and the other
churches OF the Christian world owe great debt for
the light which they have borne in on the minds OF men
But in the development Of society," the progress OF ciy
zation different class Of is assigned to each sepa
rate function and to-day the priest Ia for things pr
itua and the schoomaster for things secular In educa
tion. II is for the minister not TO DO nn-
interested because he is citizen, but az citizen he IL
not to educate 1t is for the schoomaster to DO IT, and
the schoomaster has become as much man OF sepa-
rate profession as the minister lawyer, or Doctor To
day in Great Britain IT the question, shall religion fol
low the lines Of sectarian feeling and education, or
shall II be large citizenship tseff and the issue can
not be in doubt long We have tried the experiment
and are waiting and we have become e1emplars for the
world to follow


SCHOOL SYSTEMS on THE CONTINENT
That which ia true in Great Britain to-day is true also
in Germany Education is not novel any more there
become part of the very German idea OF life
and It has been the education Of the German nation
that has raised her up from the state in which abe has
been all your lifetime and mine to stand now head and
shoulders above all the Christian nations in Europe Her