company of educational reformers, of Christian missionaries, of philanthropists, of Good Samaritans; men and women who have dedicated their lives to the great work of making their fellow-creatures better, purer, happier. These are examples which we all may imitate in our different spheres. Studying their noble careers, we may learn to appreciate aright the law of human kindness, and to understand how, if it were universally acted upon, the vast sum of human misery would gradually be reduced; and this will lead us to do, each in his own little circle, what it may be in our power to do, for the ignorant and the afflicted, the strangers who fall among thieves and lie by the wayside, bleeding from their many wounds. O reader, do not pass them by! Do not be deaf to the voice of pain and sorrow! "Shrink from no offices of love, even though they should be painful and perilous," always doing unto others as thou wouldst that others should do unto thee, and, unostentatiously but earnestly, following in the steps of the Good Samaritan. W. H. D. A. THEORIES OF EDUCATION. IMPORTANCE OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. DEAN COLET. ROGER ASCHAM. PROGRESS OF EDUCATION IN ENGLAND. FEMALE EDUCATION IN THE 18TH CENTURY:-LADY MARY MONTAGU; DEAN SWIFT. SUNDAY SCHOOLS-ROBERT RAIKES. THE MONITORIAL SYSTEM:-DR. BELL; JOSEPH LANCASTER. ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ACT:-1870. PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION:-DR. ARNOLD. INFANT SCHOOLS :-JOHN FREDERICK OBERLIN. WORK AND WORKERS IN THE EDUCATIONAL IT FIELD. T is recorded to have been the opinion of Socrates that the duty of man is to learn how to do good and avoid evil, ὄττι τοι ἔν μεγάροισι κακόντ ̓ ἀγαθόντε τέτυκται. In a similar spirit, Dr. Johnson remarks, in his "Life of Milton," that the great aim and end of education is to enable us to live as true men; that is, to live purely, truthfully, and manfully, with our feet in the straight path and our eyes towards the light. We fear, however, that in a very large number of our English schools this end and aim is not kept very constantly in view. Indeed, the common notion of education seems to be realized by the provision of a certain amount of instruction, more or less elementary, in certain branches of knowledge-not including, however, that self-knowledge which the old Greek sage thought of so much importance; and if in our high-class "academies" a separation be made between the "classical" and "commercial" divisions, and young gentlemen are specially prepared for the Civil Service and other examinations; or if in our schools for the poor a master can show that 80 or 90 per cent. of his pupils have passed successfully in "Standard III.," it is assumed that education is really flourishing amongst us, and that we have really got hold of the great secret for making the next generation wiser and better than the present. I think it probable, however, that the compilers of our Church Catechism were nearer the truth when they proposed to teach the young "their duty towards God, and their duty towards their neighbour." The Church bids us learn "to hurt nobody by word or deed, to be true and just in all our dealings, to have neither malice nor hatred in our hearts, to keep our body in temperance, soberness, and chastity;" but the Legislature steps in with the injunction that none of these things shall be taught, and substitutes the latest edition of the Revised Code. To those who adopt Dr. Arnold's view of education, and hold that it applies equally to mind, and heart, and soul,-that something more is necessary than the mere discipline of the intellect to prepare the young student for playing a noble part in the battle of life, the general tone of public discussion on this subject cannot but be mortifying. The public, and the men who write for the public, seem incapable of rising above the commonplaces of Utilitarianism, and argue as if an acquaintance with reading and writing, and Latin and mathematics, were all that it is necessary for the young mind to gain. In this sense a "good education" means nothing more than just enough learning to pass a competitive examination, or to fit a youth for entering one of the great professions, or, in the humbler walks of life, for a stool in a merchant's counting-house, or a post behind a tradesman's counter. And hence we find the "principals" of our high-class establishments boasting, not that they have educated their pupils in the honour of the Queen and the love of God; not that they have made them good citizens and good Christians; not that they have taught them to love all that is true and just, generous and hospitable, and to despise the false, the mean, and the selfish; but that so many have "passed" at this or that examination, have distinguished themselves at Woolwich or Sandhurst. We do not say that such success is not very desirable and creditable, but that it is by no means a proof or a consummation of a "good education." And, in like manner, we feel that whatever may be said in favour of the Government educational secret of "payment by results,” it cannot be pretended that one of these results is to train up a generation of men and women to believe in the Christian faith and to live the Christian life. We hold that in our higher schools as in our lower, the education given is too pretentious, and, therefore, too superficial; that it aims at too much, and therefore, accomplishes too little; that it is worldly in tone and worldly in object; that it dwells too largely upon words, and too little upon things; that it is addressed too exclusively to the intellect, at the expense of the affections and the imagination; and, above all, that it is wholly and completely a failure, when and so far as it is not based upon religion, or inspired with a religious spirit. The reader will not be displeased, perhaps, if I pause to examine very briefly Milton's loftier and more generous idea of |