How Education Tells

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 17, 30 April 1908, Page 10

How Education Tells

Dr. W. T. Harris, a former American Commissioner of Education, iss credited by the ' Av.e Maria ' with having stated as follows the results of certain, investigations made by him : « That a boy with only a cornmow school education has, in round numbers, one chance in nine thousand.— That a high school training increases this chance nearly twenty-two times.— That college education added, gives the young man about ten times the chance of a high school boy, and two hundred times the chance of the boy whose training stopped with the common school.— That the A.B. graduate is pre-eminent-ly successful, and that the self-educated man is inconspicuous '.

This is not, of course, always the case— even from the point of view of the mere mental training acquired in school. But the exceptions are only just about numerous enough to prove the rule. The story of 1 the great engineer gun-wizard, Sir Hiram Maxim, occurs to our mdnd as the pen pursues its z>i'g-&ag course aver the paper. Sir Hiram's .school education was of the poorest. On the last day of his school life, his younger sister carried off the first prize. Hiram, stupid, hut well-behaved, drew, as usual, none. ' I will now ', said the teacher at the close of the distribution of prizes, 4 give a leather medal to the most stupid scholar in the school '. 'I looked about me ', said Sir Hiram, ' and I was quite certain that it must be Kirn Casley,' the double-thumbed boy. But, no ! The teacher selected Hiram Maxim. I went forward, and was given, the only medal I have ever received in my life for anything relating to education '.

Reverting to ex-Comimiissioner Harris's investigations, we find in the ' "Aye Maria ' some pertinent remarks in regard to wfiat constitutes the ' chance ' of "a boy. It is, of course, 'success. 'And', says the ■' Aye ', •' " success " in this connection most - ldfoely means making a livelihood and acquiring a more or less notable fortune. It is to be presumed that Dr. Harris implied, if he did not express, the necessary proviso, " other things bein^ equal ", else his assertions will bfe open to well-grounded objections. Honesty, integrity, the sense of religious duty— in a word, character,- is- a factor the presence on- absence of which will account for greater divergence^ in the careers of young men' than*

will the mere difference between the common and the high-^sohool training,, or between tfae incompletei and the finished college course.' ' More. Theology A great dead of time— four ' solid _years " or-diinarily— is devototf by Catholic ecclesiastical students to l the queen of sciences ' , theology. The solid groumdfißg which- they receive both- in philosophical and theological science leaves them, as a rule, well equipped to dissect the fallacies of caKow theorists, such as the revamped and oft-exposed old errors and misconceptions that constitute the miscalled 'new' theology.- The Rev W Hewitson-whose meaty articles tin the fiunedin ' Outlook r are always worth assimilating-^cmphasises, " in a recent issue of that paper, the aaed of more theologyfox stuidients preparing for the Presbyterian ministry. Principal Harper; of St. - Andrew's College (Sydney), holds with him. (he says) that ' the thing necessary to, ■day m training men is much more thorough instruction in theology. It is appalling to. .think -(said 1 he) what would happen to the- Church If a great heresy arose. It would catch the Church quite unprepared '.. And in has recent work on ' Positive Preaching ', Principal Forsyth writes ; ' I say that, in the present state of tfoe Church, and certainly for the salce of its pulpit, its ministers, and its future, theology is a" greater- need than philanthropy. Because men. do not know where' they are. They are only steering by "dead reckoning— when anything may happen. " But theology is " taking the sun ".. And it is wonderful— it is dangerous-toow few of our officers can use the sextant for themselves. Yet what is the use of captains who are more at home entertaining the passengers than navigating— the ship.'

It is not pleasant to. contemplate the jmannrar in which, outside the Catholic Church; men-even, at ttmes; the officers of the ship-are carried about by every wind of doctiioe. The evil wrought upon the faith ot_ many by a destructive and extreme 'higher criticism ', and by the passing fancies and shallow the^ ories of the so-called ' new theology !, recall to mind some remarks made by Dr. Harris Taylor, a former -American Minister to "Spain, on a recent occasion in Washington. He said- in- part : ' The famous English agnostfcc and historian, Buckle, who died at Damascus, made, near the close of his life, a pilgrimage to the Holy City with a caravan that included representative divines from many denominations.' After he had discussed with them profoundly the- theological problems that agdtated the world during the lasir generation, one of the company called upon him to express his views as to the essence of the issues involved, and ' their probable outcome. In reply, Buckle said : " I see, on the one hand, the young and growing host of agnosticism ; on the other; the older Ciiristian host, o ae wang of which rests on the disintegrating ' dogma of private judgment, the other on the cohesive dogma of an infallible Church ". He then added : "In my judgment, tlto future of- Christianity depends upon the power of the CathoHc Church to defend it »'.' ,' , • * The Catholic Church stands in serene possession. las the judge of- reli.-ious controversies. She is not appalled, whether^ a great heresy . arises, or -a'sinjall. ' Securus' judicat orbera terrarum '— she passes judgment in matters of. faith and of . morals, secure from error. Fox the Abiding Spirit is -in, the- Church 'for ever', to teach her '.all truth ' (John, xiv=., 16-17, 26 ; xvi., 1314) ; and Christ (Whose"' body ' she. is— Ool., i., 18) -is her life and "light and soul. The poet Dryden, after his .conversion to the Catholic faith, wrote of her as follows in ' The Hind and the" Panther ' •— -

O gracious God! how well -dost- Tihou . provide *or erring judgments an, unerring guide. . . *or this obscurity, haw oould heaven. provide '. More prudently than by a livtin-g guide ? It then remains : that Church can only be The guide, which owns unfailingSsertainty '.

And again :— ' One in herself, not rent by schism,, but sound, Entire, one solid, shining -diamond, Not sparkles scattered into sects '. And by her ' bhe self-same doctrine of the sacred page 'is ' conveyed to every clime- in every a ge '.- -