"What suits the gods above
Only the gods can know;
What we want is
This World's sense
How to live below."
BY its nature, Secularism is tolerant with regard to religions. I once
drew up a code of rules for an atheistic school. One rule was that the
children should be taught the tenets of the Christian, Catholic, Moslem,
Jewish, and the leading theological systems of the world, as well as
Secularistic and atheistic forms of thought; so that when the pupil
came to years of discretion he might be able, intelligently, to choose
a faith for himself. Less than this would be a fraud upon the
understanding of a man. In matters which concern himself alone, he must
be free to choose for himself, and know what he is choosing from.
That form of belief which has misgivings as to whether it can stand by
itself, is to be distrusted.
It is the scandal of Christianity that, for twenty-five years, it has
paralysed School Board instruction by its discord of opinion as to
the religious tenets to be imparted; while in Secularity there is no
disunity. Everybody is agreed upon the rules of arithmetic. The laws
of grammar command general assent. There are no rival schools upon the
interpretation of geometrical problems. It is only in divinity that
irreconcilable diversity exists. When Secular instruction is conceded,
denominational differences will be respected, as aspects of the
integrity of conscience, which no longer obstruct the intellectual
progress of the people.
But there are graver issues than the pride and preference of the
preacher; namely, the welfare of the children of the people. What the
working classes want is an industrial education. Poverty is a battle,
and the poor are always in a conflict--a conflict in which the most
ignorant ever go to the wall. The accepted policy of the State leaves
the increase of population to chance. It suffers none to be killed; it
compels people to be kept alive, and abandons their subsistence to the
accident of capitalists requiring to hire their services. Thus our great
towns are crowded with families, impelled there by the wild forces of
hunger and of passion. From the workingman thus situated, the governing
class exacts four duties:
1. That he shall give the parish no disquietude by asking it to maintain
his family.
2. That he shall pay whatever taxes are levied upon him.
3. That he shall give no trouble to the police.
4. That he shall fight generally whomsoever the Government may see fit
to involve the nation in war with.
Whatever knowledge is necessary to enable the future workman to do these
things, is his right, and should be given to him in his youth in the
speediest manner; and any other inculcation which shall delay this
knowledge on its way, or confuse the learner in acquiring it, is a
cruelty to him and a peril to the community which permits it; and the
State, were it discerning and just, would forbid it.
In April, 1870, in a letter which appeared in the _Spectator_; I wrote
as follows:
"In the speech of the Bishop of Peterborough, delivered at the
Educational Conference at Leicester, and published in a separate form by
the National Education Union, his Lordship quotes from a recent letter
of mine to the _Daily News_ some words in which I explained that
'unsectarian education amounts to a new species of parliamentary piety.'
It is a satisfaction to find that the Bishop of Peterborough is able
to 'entirely endorse these words.' The Bishop asks: 'Whose words do you
suppose they are? They are the words of that reactionary maintainer of
creeds and dogmas--Mr. Holyoake.' So far from being a 'reactionary'
in this matter, I have always maintained that every form of sincere
opinion, religious or secular, should have free play and fair play. I
have never varied in advocating the right of free utterance and free
action of all earnest conviction. The State requires a self-supporting
and tax-paying population. But the State cannot insure this, except by
imparting _productive_ knowledge to the people. It is necessary for the
people to receive, it is the interest of the State to give, _productive_
instruction in national schools."
If people realised how much extended secular instruction is needed,
they would be impatient with the obstruction of it by contending
sects. Children want industrial education to fit them for emigrants. A
knowledge of soils, of cattle, of climate, and crops, and how to nail
up a wigwam and grow pork and corn, is what they need. For want of such
knowledge Clerkenwell watchmakers, Northampton shoemakers, Lancashire
weavers, and Durham miners perish as emigrants, and their bones
bleach the prairies. Yet all orthodox teaching turns out its pupils
uninstructed, for, as Tillottson has said, "He that does not know
those things which are of use and necessity for him to know, is but an
ignorant man, whatever he may know beside." To know this world, and the
Secular conditions of prosperity in it, is indispensable to the people.
Christianity is entirely futile in industry. If a workman cannot pay
his taxes, the most devout Chancellor of the Exchequer will not abate
sixpence in consideration of the defaulter's piety. The poor man may
believe in the Thirty-nine Articles, be able to recite all the Collects;
he may spend his Sundays at church, and his evenings at prayer-meeting;
but the reverend magistrate, who has confirmed him and preached to him,
will send him to gaol if he does not pay. The sooner workmen understand
that Christianity has no commercial value, the better for them.
Why should purely Secular instruction be regarded with distrust, when
purely religious education does not answer? It does not appear in human
experience that purely religious teaching, even when dispensed in a
clergyman's family, is a security for good conduct. It is matter of
common remark that the sons of clergymen turn out worse than the sons of
parents in other professions.
We want no whining or puling population. The elements of science and
morality will give children the use of their minds, and minds to
use, and teach justice and kindness, self-direction, self-reliance,
fortitude, and truth. There is piety in this instruction,--piety to
mankind,--exactly that sort of piety for the want of which society
suffers.
The principles for which during two centuries Nonconformity in England
has contended are, that the State should forbid no religion, impose no
religion, teach no religion, pay no religion. In 1870, the year in which
Mr. Forster's Act came into operation, I was the only person who
issued a public address to the "School Board Electors" in favor of free
compulsory, and Secular instruction. Two of the proposals, the least
likely to be favorably received, have since been adopted. The turn of
the third must be near, unless fools are always at the polls.