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CHURCH AND STATE.

itself, and from the heartfelt simplicity with which charity was received, in those times, as its leading feature, I should further infer, that the moving principle in education also was love rather than fear. The strict discipline which obtained in the early churches, for the sake of consistency between doctrine and practice, as well as for the purpose of rigorous distinction from the pagan world, leads me to think, that attention to a proper conduct of life was a very essential point, also, in the domestic discipline; and lastly, I should conclude from the social position in which the first Christian communities were placed, and the persecutions under which they were labouring, on one hand, that their virtues were more of a passive and negative, than of an active and positive nature: and, on the other, that the whole tendency of their education was not to direct the child's attention to the goods and enjoyments, the honours and preferments, of this world, but to render him conscious of those eternal treasures, which no human exertion can procure, and no human persecution can take away.

But this happy time-for, notwithstanding all its persecutions, Christianity has never yet seen a happier onedid not last long. Political power erected itself arrogantly as the protector of Christianity, and from this moment the latter received in itself a seed of corruption, of which the subsequent generations have reaped many a baneful harvest, and for the extermination of which, there was no other remedy than that which has very recently begun to be adopted, viz., an entire separation between religion and the state. In consequence of this separation, those who have hitherto been accustomed to look to political power for the support of religion, and to associate with it the idea of worldly preferment, will be obliged to acknowledge the superiority of the living truth of divine revelation over the dead forms of human institution, and to view the grandeur and the honours of man's making, with that indifference which becomes those that are made acquainted with the greatness and the glory of the Kingdom

CHURCH AND PRIESTHOOD.

15

of God. Education, as one of the most vital and most sensitive parts of the social organization, soon began to feel the reaction of that uncongenial and pernicious alliance which religion had formed with human power. The unity of purpose which had existed in the primitive church ceased, and, with a twofold object, a twofold mode of education was introduced. Religious education became now in fact nothing more than the training for a particular trade; whilst, on the other hand, the tuition of those destined for civil life, or a political career, included in itself a far greater proportion of pagan than of christian elements. Of these two, the former became of necessity the more corrupt, because, with a higher profession of principle, it combined an equally low, and, in some instances, even a lower purpose than the latter. The first occasion of this corruption was an essential mistake, and one which, down to the present day, has not yet been sufficiently explored. The principle which has within the last years been laid down as the basis of what is called civil and religious liberty, viz.: that religion has nothing to do with matters of state, is certainly a false one; but the principle of clerical ascendancy, in opposition to which it has been established, is not less false. The primitive idea which gave birth to the claim of supremacy on the part of the church over all worldly matters, was no doubt a correct one-it was the undeniable, though, perhaps, at the present time, very unpractical idea, that the principles of religion, of course, pure and unadulterated, should be the only test and standard of all human transactions; and in this sense it is strictly true, that the church ought not only to be allied with, but to rule over the state. Unfortunately, however, the principle was soon perverted by a substitution of the idea of priesthood to that of the church. The consequence of this important mistake was the promulgation of a principle, as false and pernicious as the former is true and salutary, namely,—that the priesthood should rule over, or at least participate in worldly power. In

16

MONACHISM AND CHIVALRY.

this manner it was, that the ministry of religion, which was originally a humble service of God and man, rose above the common level of society, to competition of rank with its rulers. The foundation, nevertheless, on which these pretensions ultimately rested, was not to be lost sight of; and the greater, therefore, the departure from the spirit of religion, the more necessary seemed a rigid adherence to its forms. In this contradiction of purpose and means originated the monastic education of the middle ages; which, in matters of knowledge, confined itself, at each period, to the least possible degree of knowledge, absolutely required by the exigencies of the age,—giving, at the same time, this scanty allowance in the most pedantic and the most enthralling form; and which, on the score of discipline, consisted in nothing else but an ostentatious display of outward austerity and sanctity, under which the most unrestrained and profane dispositions might lurk unmolested, and, under the ægis of secrecy, impunely obtain the basest and most sinful gratification. That this education, which chained down the intellect by a servile formalism, and acted upon the moral man by the most slavish fear, was, in its tendency, both anti-religious and antisocial, no one that has the slightest knowledge of monastic history, will attempt to deny : nor will it be difficult to prove, that the education of those destined to appear on the stage of civil or political life, was equally inconsistent, both with the dictates of religion and with the welfare of society. The only schools in which, during the middle ages, that sort of education was given, were the courts of princes. As to knowledge, it is no secret that its extent was extremely limited; the chief objects of study being hawking, hunting, fencing, and some other acquirements of the like description; and, as regards the motives which were principally brought into action, they were ambition, the thirst of distinction in the eyes of the prince, and of his courtiers, and the pride of a prowess, consisting in the possession of a stronger hand and a stouter heart, by

THE REFORMATION. THE PRESENT AGE.

17

which a man was enabled, in plain speech, to knock down a greater number of his fellow creatures than his rival would either undertake or succeed in.

In this splendid division of the field of human labour between monastic hypocrisy, and haughty Vandalism, the great mass of the people were-fortunately for them, no doubt, under such circumstances-entirely forgotten; and it was not till the time of the reformation that notice was taken of the mental and moral barrenness in which by far the largest proportion of the community had been allowed to grow up. The new impulse which the reformation gave to the march of civilization, and the jealous watchfulness with which the reformers inquired into the causes of the national thraldom of mind, brought to light the fearful ignorance in which the lower classes had been kept, and caused some provisions to be made for the education of the rising generations to a more enlightened state. But it was not to be expected, that those, who had themselves hardly emerged from a state of pedantic instruction, in many instances, perhaps, worse than ignorance, should at once be enabled to devise, and to bring into practice, a free and enlightened mode of tuition. Hence it is, that the education, insured to the poorer classes in consequence of the reformation, was itself poor enough. Indeed, that of the rich remained not less defective; even at the present day, have we not to deplore, besides the narrowness of the instruction given in charity schools, the existence of a sad remnant of monastic spirit in Protestant seats of learning, and of Vandalism in the political and military career?

Within the last fifty years, however, these defects have been universally felt, and it is remarkable to see the efforts which have been making in the three principal countries of civilized Europe, Germany, France, and England, to ameliorate the state of education, so much the more, as they exhibit, in a very striking manner, the characteristic features of the three nations. In Germany,

с

18

GERMANY, FRANCE.

in which there was, and still is, the smallest proportion of practical knowledge, in spite of a great deal of learning, or at least teaching, an attempt has been made to introduce topics of practical utility in the instruction of youth, and at the same time to get rid of the heavy forms in which all knowledge was till then communicated. Since the time of Basedow, who, in this respect, broke the ice, a number of schemes were successively palmed upon the German public, which had all for their object to convey knowledge of natural science, and other topics of real life, in a pleasing, or rather in a trifling manner, by means of dialogizing tales, in which a great variety of matter is introduced, as it were, by the way of à propos, without any order or plan. In combination with this unprofitable reform of the intellectual part of education, the attempt was made to supplant the cane,-till then, and, in many parts, even till now, the great lever of moral discipline.-by a sort of sentimental moral-preaching, likewise in the form of childish stories, properly interlined with ingenious questions and answers. The looseness of knowledge, and laxity of moral feeling, produced by these new systems on one hand, and, on the other, the pedantry of the old mode of tuition, and the despotic sway of its barbarous discipline, gave rise to an opposition, equally directed against both. In the last popular excitement of Germany, occasioned by the war against Napoleon, when many a dream of immature reform was dreamed, the idea of educating the youth of the country, somewhat upon the system of Lycurgus and Plato, independently of all parental interference, under the authority, and for the purposes of the state, was abortively broached by those who, hoping to see a new era in the political state of their country, were anxious to secure durability to the vainly anticipated forms of civil liberty, by training up a sound and manly generation.

The changes made in France at the same period, and from similar causes, as they consisted chiefly in a violent emancipation from superannuated superstition, and from