Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/66

54 works of unselfish love, to the control of their spirits under slander, to the withholding of themselves from all revenge, to love and patience even in theological matters. Our fathers, with praiseworthy anxiety, established schools; they did so that, in these schools, the youth might not simply be built up to manhood, but especially that they might be led by pious training to a living knowledge of their Father; that the image of God might be more and more perfected in them, that from these schools men should go forth, not simply for the spread of knowledge, but that, equipped with every virtue which leads to true happiness they might serve the honor of God and the public good in the position to which God had appointed them. As it now is, all industry in the schools is given to Latium, so that little remains for Hellas, for Judea scarcely anything. Our youth go from the schools tolerably well furnished with such knowledge as they shall put to outward use, but without knowing God, all absorbed in love for the world and endeavor to please it, wise for themselves, but so much the less instructed in divine wisdom."

We must clearly know what pietism, at its best estate, proposed as the end of education. We shall, I think, find this end distinctly set forth in the following utterances:

"The final purpose of all education is a living recognition of God and an upright Christian deportment. Only the genuinely pious man is a good citizen of society. Without true piety, all knowledge, all skill, all world-culture, are more harmful than useful, and man is never safe from the misuse of knowledge. First, and before all other things, education must strive for the radical improvement of the heart. Everything which immediately or mediately works against this supreme and final end must be banished. Instruction is subordinated to training." (Italics the present writer's.) "The purpose of the school is not an impartation of certain knowledges—all teaching must contain an educative tendency. The design of such training is the upbuilding of the kingdom of God in the heart of the child, and, proceeding from this basis, education should be comprehended in all its grades and divisions as one system, one culture. Those who give themselves to study should regard the ancient languages as the chief concern. Latin is to be pursued the most, and grammatically, from the beginning. Greek has its basis in the New Testament. A chief advantage to be gained from the ancient languages is a right understanding of the sacred Scriptures, which every student should read in the original. It is well to understand the heathen writers; still, too much occupation with them easily leads away from a high estimation of the Bible. Next to the languages, no student should remain unacquainted with geography, mathematics, history, astronomy, and natural philosophy. In the higher classes logic, which leads to orderly thought, and rhetoric, which leads to correct and good expression, should be pursued and made practical by exercises and disputations."