MORAL EDUCATION.

Waikato Times, Volume 2620, Issue XXXII, 27 April 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

MORAL EDUCATION.

Ix his address at the Timaru High School, Mr \V. Rolleston made use of the following apposite remarks on the subject of education There is another aspect of education with which the State cannot deal, or only to a limited extent, as a training of tho heart and affections, and those faculties which bring men into relation with the unseen and spiritual world. The subject is too large a one to enter upon now, and its importance is too great to admit of its being dealt with cursorily or superficially. The general trainiug of which I have spoken, however, will have been badly carried on if it does not fit its recipients for the contemplation of a different range of subjects. The danger which arises from this wonderful advance of knowledge, from this marvellous triumph of philosophy and scientific research, is that spoken of by a deep thinker of old that " knowledge pud's up." Budding philosophers read Herbert Spencer and John Stewart Mill, and thiuk that the last word has been said by tboso great, thinkers on the subject of which they treat. Tha phenomena of nature are spoken of as though wo had ai rived at absolute certainty in matters of science. The tmmo self-sufficient spirit is carried into the treatment of the spiritual world as though in tho contemplation of Infinite Litfht, "our eye reached to the end of Heaven," not, as indeed is the fact, as though in matters of philosophy, science and religion alike, we were beings groping "in the feeble twilight of this world until we pass and reach that othpr where we see as we are seen." Therefore it is that I would insist to my youns? friends here to-day that the result of all their training should be to convince them not how much but how little they really know. It is in the cultivation of a spirit of modesty and reverence, coupled with selfrespect, that the best results of education appear. It is this that is described by Mr Gladstone as the creativo and formative idea of the old Greek society. " That powerful principle, the counter atrent to all ineaness and selfishness, which oblige* a man to have regard to same law or standaid above that of force, and extrinsic to his own will, his own passion*, or his own propensities.'' It is in this that we, the older generation, think that the rising generation are wanting, both English boys and those born in the colonies. Let us, however, say this, that I am not one of those who think that our youths, whether boys or girls, do not oome out well in a comparison with those of the Old Country. If tho State does its duty in respcct of technical education ; if our boys gain the qualifications for earning a livelihood by doing some one thinir well; if our girls are trained to bo good housewives, not simply slaves in some wrotched sweating establishment; tho ranks of the unemployed will not be swelled in the future any more than in t.ho past by our native-born youth of either sex. In all material qualities, so far as my observation goes, in straightforwardness, trustworthiness, intelligence, and kindliness, the Home born and the colonial born vouth are much alike. In the latter perhaps self-respect takes the less attractive form of self-confidence. Common sense is, I think, more dominant, and enthusiasm and anything like zeal is less so. Laissez fairo seems to be their motto. For the rest the boys do not bounce and blow and the girls do not gush more or less than their English cousins.