the
money, badly; but that is no argument against the possession of either.
Of course, the value of education, as of money, chiefly consists in its
proper use. And one of the advantages of knowledge is, that the very
acquisition of it tends to increase the capability of using it aright;
which is certainly not the case with the accumulation of money.

Education, however obtained, is always an advantage to a man. Even as a
means of material advancement, it is worthy of being sought after,--not
to speak of its moral uses as an elevator of character and intelligence.
And if, as Dr. Lyon Playfair insists, the composition between industrial
nations must before long become a competition mainly of intelligence, it
is obvious that England must make better provision for the education of
its industrial classes, or be prepared to fall behind in the industrial
progress of nations.

"It would be of little avail," said Dr. Brewster of Edinburgh, "to the
peace and happiness of society, if the great truths of the material
world were confined to the educated and the wise. The organization of
science thus limited would cease to be a blessing. Knowledge secular,
and knowledge divine, the double current of the intellectual life-blood
of man, must not merely descend through the great arteries of the social
frame; it must be taken up by the minutest capillaries before it can
nourish and purify society. Knowledge is at once the manna and the
medicine of our moral being. Where crime is the bane, knowledge is the
antidote. Society may escape from the pestilence and may survive the
famine; but the demon of ignorance, with his grim adjutants of vice and
riot, will pursue her into her most peaceful haunts, destroying our
institutions, and converting into a wilderness the paradise of social
and domestic life. The State has, therefore, a great duty to perform. As
it punishes crime, it is bound to prevent it. As it subjects us to laws,
it must teach us to read them; and while it thus teaches, it must teach
also the ennobling truths which display the power and the wisdom of the
great Lawgiver, thus diffusing knowledge while it is extending
education; and thus making men contented, and happy, and humble, while
it makes them quiet and obedient subjects."

A beginning has already been made with public school education. Much
still remains to be done to establish the system throughout the empire.
At present we are unable to judge of the effects of what ha