depends wholly on themselves; no chances, no circumstances, no misconduct on the part of others can deprive them of eternal happiness, if they are true to themselves, and reject not the proffered means of salvation. MONTESINOS. Alas, that it should be so difficult for them to believe* and love! I know not which should be regarded as the worst enemies of their fellow creatures, they who mislead and abuse our faith, or they who labour with pestilent activity to destroy it. Yet, perhaps, more evil is brought about by indirect causes than by immediate ones; and the ways of the world have greater influence than the efforts of fanaticism and false philosophy, in producing superstition and misbelief on one hand, and unbelief on the other. The religious culture of the mind is neglected in youth, when its intellectual advancement in other respects receives most attention; and no sooner have we attained to manhood, than we are devoted to some branch * "Let this meditation," says Jackson, "never slip out of thy memory; that seeing the last and principal end of all graces bestowed upon us in this life, is rightly to believe in Christ, this cannot be, as the drowsy worldling dreams, the easiest, but rather the most difficult point of Christianity.”— Vol. i. p. 780. or other of "that cold business," in which, as Ben Jonson says, " a man mispends the better part of life." Care then cankers the heart, or prosperity corrupts it; the fever of ambition seizes us, or we fall into the morbus fatuus of the worldly wise; and practical irreligion is thus produced even in those who escape the malaria of infidelity. SIR THOMAS MORE. Religious education, you say, is neglected. Where does that sin of omission rest,.. with the people, or with the clergy? Is it a defect in the institutions, or a fault in the customs of the country? MONTESINOS. All have their share in it, ill customs, defective institutions,.. the clergy, who neglect their duty in this particular,.. and the parents, who leave undone what it is in their power to do. To them, however, the least part of the omission is imputable; few mothers failing to instruct their children as far as their own capabilities of instructing extend. But it is one of the evils of our schools, public and private, that the habits of devotion which a boy learns at his mother's knees are broken there, and the seeds of early piety destroyed. SIR THOMAS MORE. It has come to pass, then, in the changes of society, that the very institutions, which in their origin were purely religious seminaries, are now the places where religion may, in a certain sense, be said to be unlearnt! MONTESINOS. To keep up so much of the practice of piety, as is essential for the life and reality of religion, there must be social worship, and solitary prayer. For the latter there is no opportunity at school, however much the boy himself may desire to observe a custom, the importance of which he has duly been taught to apprehend. But it is impossible for him to do this in a common dormitory, or even when other boys are lodged in the same chamber. Few parents seem to be sensible of this evil, though it may prove more deeply injurious in its consequences than any other mischief which may be deemed incidental to public education. SIR THOMAS MORE. The use of dormitories was continued from the old establishments; but the perpetual superintendence, which made a part of the conventual system, was withdrawn. The evil is to be remedied by allotting to each his sepa rate chamber, and introducing just so much superintendence as may secure its privacy. MONTESINOS. There may be too much superintendence, as well as too little; but this remedy would go far towards putting an end to the tyranny exercised by the senior boys, which is the worst evil that the want of superintendence has produced. There would be more difficulty in making social worship retain, or rather resume, its proper character and uses; the effect at present, both at schools and universities, being to deaden the instinct of piety, instead of cherishing and maturing it. Here we have a difficulty which had no existence in days when monasteries were the only seminaries of learning. SIR THOMAS MORE. The pupils in such establishments saw that the practice, or at least the profession, of religion, was the main business of life for those under whose tuition they were placed, or by whom they were surrounded. Moreover, it was the service in which they had enlisted, and to the higher grades of which they were looking on; by it they were to be elevated in society, and it was the only means of elevation for those who were not of noble birth; by it they were to obtain, at all events, security in an insecure age, subsistence, respectability, ease and comfort: wealth and luxury were accessible to their desires; if ambition inclined that way, the highest earthly dignities entered into their prospect; if it took a loftier direction, the higher honours of altars and images might be reserved for them at last. Here, then, every thing tended to make them feel the temporal and spiritual importance of religion. If their minds were not impressed by the ceremonials of a splendid ritual, they were at least engaged in it; there was something to occupy them,.. something for the eye, and the imagination. Should the heart remain unaffected, it was, nevertheless, entertained in a state which made it apt to receive devout impressions, and open to their influences. You threw away your crutches too soon, mistaking the excitement of that fervour, which the religious revolution called forth, for confirmed and healthy strength. Now, when the excitement has worn itself out, a stage of languor has succeeded, which has a dangerous tendency to terminate in torpor and indifference. But this is an unnatural state of mind, for man is a religious creature, and it is among those who seek to escape from it, that superstition finds an eager demand for its opiates, or enthusiasm for its cordial elixirs. |