Notes on the new reformation in Germany : and on national education, and the common schools of Massachusetts / By George Combe.

  • George Combe
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the new reformation in Germany : and on national education, and the common schools of Massachusetts / By George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/88 (page 1)
    ON NATIONAL EDUCATION. The public appear to be now nearly unanimous on the point, that the people should be educated; but considerable differences of opinion exist as to who should be charged with the duty of educating them,—the state or individuals \ also whether combined religious and secular instruction, or secular instruction alone, should be given by the schoolmaster, leav- ing religious instruction to be supplied by the parent and priest. To communicate my views distinctly on these points, I find it advisable to begin with the very elements of the subject. In the arguments generally maintained on these ques- tions, certain views of the nature of man ; of the origin and objects of society ; of the powers and duties of government; and of the connection between practical morality, secular prosperit}^ and religious belief, are assumed by the various writers as settled doctrines, concerning which their own opinions are unquestionably sound ; when, in point of fact, no adequate consideration has been bestowed on these topics either by them or by those to whom they address themselves, and no common views in regard to them are definitely assented to by either. When the postulates of a discussion are thus involved in obscurity, and apprehended differently by differ- ent individuals, harmony in the conclusions is impossible. However widely, therefore, the reader may differ from some of the opinions now to be stated, few, I hope, will doubt the advantage of elucidating these fundamental points of the question. This world, then, appears to me to be a vast theatre con- stituted for exertion ; in which enjoyment is the natural con- sequence of industry, morality, and intelligence, and suffering