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HERE is now on foot in this country a movement to provide for the religious instruction of our children. It has been organized in an association whose members represent all varieties of educational interests. But a short time since its deliberations were held in Boston, and the views then expressed have found an echo in every part of the United States. That differences of opinion should exist as to the practical execution, is only natural. But these differences cannot obscure the significant fact that American educators are practically agreed upon the necessity of giving to religion a larger place than it has hitherto held in our educational scheme.

To the Catholic mind this turn of affairs is particularly interesting. The Church, it is true, has been kept rather busy for a century or so with the development of her own schools -too busy, perhaps, to follow in all their details the various modifications introduced into other systems. But she cannot help noting a change of attitude on the part of non-Catholics which is in itself so important and which may have far-reaching consequences. Simply as an observer of events, she is interested to see the lessons of her own long experience confirmed and emphasized by the experience of the present gen

eration.

There remains, of course, this radical difference between the position of the Church and that of other teaching agencies: while these may spend much time and thought and energy in Copyright. 1905. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL. THE APOSTLE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

VOL. LXXXI.-46

the discussion of ways and means, the Church must continue without pause or delay the work of religious education. She cannot afford to postpone the application of her principles until a theoretically perfect arrangement has been devised. Her care is for the child of to-day-not merely for the children. who are yet unborn. She has to deal with actual conditions and not to wait for those that are ideal. As in the past, so in the future, her aim must be to develop and maintain the spirit of religion in the souls of her children by every means which she can consistently adopt. If the present movement shall result in any practical system of religious instruction, so much the better; if not, she will regret the failure, but she will not desist from her own endeavor.

Whatever the final outcome, it is certain that this whole matter of moral and religious education is receiving just now more careful attention and more thorough discussion than ever before. It has become a matter of scientific investigation with methods of its own and with a literature that grows rapidly. It occupies a larger place in our general reviews and it finds. scholarly treatment in reviews more specially devoted to its problems.

Now all these inquiries as to the method of religious instruction pre-suppose what has been accomplished in the field of secular instruction. They assume, quite correctly, that the moral and religious training of the child must be adapted to the nature of the child, must respect the laws of mental development, and must profit by every new insight which can be gotten through the analysis of mind. In a word, it seems clear that the teaching of religion will be based upon the findings of psychology. We are not, perhaps, agreed as to the scope and nature of this science; and much less as regards the interpretation of its latest results. Psychology itself has developed to such an extent, within the last few decades, that it is hard to say just where its boundaries are, and just what it has accomplished on the side of practical application. Nevertheless, there are certain large conclusions which may be regarded as fairly secure; certain principles which, in the main, are accepted as the basis of educational theory. On these, likewise, moral and religious education must rest.

But again we should remember that instruction implies something more than method; it implies content. Teaching

means that there is something to be taught. The teaching of religion means that there is some definite system of belief and practice which must become the mental possession of the child. Religious education, therefore, involves necessarily these two factors: the mind of the pupil and the doctrine of the Church. If, then, method is to be based on psychology, the form of religion is, in a measure, subjected to psychological tests. Religious practices that are at variance with psychological principles will bid defiance to correct method; and conversely, those forms and practices which conform to the laws of psychology will not only find their advantage in right method, but will also aid considerably in making the method right.

My purpose just now is to inquire into the educational value of Catholic teaching and practice. I do not ask whether this or that particular method, these devices or those others, are in accordance with the principles of psychology. I propose rather to look at the work of the Church as a whole-not merely what she does in the schoolroom, but also what she does in her worship, her ministration, her discipline, her preaching of the Gospel of Christ. The Church has been the teacher of mankind for two thousand years. She has had experience with all races and classes of men. She has expounded to them the highest of all truths in preparation for the highest of all destinies. The question that I now wish to discuss is this: How far does the Church, in teaching morality and religion, conform to the principles of psychology?

It is needful at the outset to understand what we mean by "Catholic education." What are its essential characteristics, aims, and methods? Wherein does it differ from other educational systems; and what warrant has it for so differing?

In reply, I would say:

First. The Catholic Church maintains that intellectual, moral, and religious education cannot be separated without detriment to the mental life. They are in reality parts of our education. Knowledge alone is not a sufficient guide for conduct, and moral training which leaves religion out of view is inadequate.

Second. In the matter of religious education, the Church holds that instruction and practice must go together. It is not sufficient that the child be taught what he is to believe. He must also be trained to live out his belief in action.

Third.-As regards the means and the methods of religious education, the Church claims that they must be adapted to the needs of the human mind, and must therefore be in harmony with the established principles of psychology.

Our present purpose is to select the more essential of these principles and to show that they find their application in our Catholic system.

A leading characteristic of modern psychology is the importance which it attaches to the sensory processes of mind. We are no longer satisfied with the general statement that all knowledge takes its rise in sensation; nor even with the accurate description of the various sensory functions. By means of careful experiment, we have discovered the laws which govern these functions and the part which they play in the higher mental activities. The more we search into the nature of sensation, the more are we convinced that the entire life of the mind-intellectual, emotional, and volitional-is closely bound up with the elementary processes that take place in the organs of sense.

In the earlier years, the role of sensation is especially conspicuous. With its intellect and will scarcely awakened, the child is literally a "bundle of sensations." With its brain yet plastic, it is receiving impressions and storing up images that will persist during life. The whole future of the mind is largely determined by what is seen and heard in this period. The attitude of the boy or girl towards things spiritual depends to a great extent upon the training that is given to eye and ear. If we hold that reason must govern conduct, and that will is the keystone of character, we should not forget that both reason and will are aroused and directed by perception, by the commerce of the mind with the external, material world. And in the same way are called forth those affective states-feeling and emotion and the beginnings of passion-which tend to become, and often do become, the mainsprings of action.

Clearly, then, it is of the utmost consequence that the development of the sensory activities should take place in such a way as to safeguard the moral nature of the child. As far as possible, those impressions should be multiplied which fill the mind with images of things high and pure and beautiful. As far as possible, also, whatever contains the germ of

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