Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 15.djvu/383

Rh But more than this, the school should seek to cultivate the human sympathies. Herbart, the writer to whom especially educationists of to-day refer, declares that the sympathies, on analysis, concern themselves with humanity, with society and the relation of both of these to the Highest Being. If the cultivation of these sympathies be neglected, then there is a moral atrophy which is a distinct loss to the individual and to the community.

The educationist, be it noted, does not suggest that either knowledge or large human sympathies are "imparted" from without. Education is not something conveyed from the teacher to the pupil. Religious education, for instance, is not the instilling of the teacher's dogmas or tenets into the pupil. Every educationist thinks the important matter is the manifestation of the boy's mind in his thoughts, words and actions, and the growing increase in wisdom of them. Jesus, the great Teacher, said it is not that "which goeth in … that defileth a man, but that which cometh out". So in education it is the active energy of the mind of the pupil bringing itself to bear on the universe in which he finds himself which needs stimulation and help to reach out for himself into the intellectual, moral and volitional.

Let me state the general principles of religious teaching which educationally are acceptable. Let the teacher keep to the highways of humanism. Teach the important points of morals and religion which have an illuminative bearing upon conduct and life. Do not be didactic; let all so-called maxims or morals arise indirectly. Bring the human side well out in all the material of instruction used—Scripture or other books. Let the spirit of truth meet the spirit of reverence. As far as possible induce the pupils to think for themselves, and encourage them to express their thoughts. Readily accept the statement of their opinion—and help them to be sincere—even if their ideas be crude. If crude, help them to refine. Inculcate, above all, reverence for personality—for this is the basis of both the human and the divine idea, and at the root of it is—will. Always acknowledge with a spirit of gratitude—the 'good '-will—as seen in history, in literature, in Scripture. In matters of the State, teach, as T. H. Green has shown, the very basis of the state is not force, but will. The 'good'-will is to be reverenced as the expression of the right-minded man and the right-minded community. It is, moreover, of importance to reverence 'good'-will, even where we differ from its form of manifestation. For example, in the last generation, Darwin was spoken of as an atheist and infidel. His theory of