and Truth meet together? Righteousness and Peace kiss each other? The Teacher to whom these phrases are commonly referred, found the common ground on which to affect the reconciliation in benevolence or love; but love, with Him, was perfectly consistent with indignant rebuke and stern punishment.

This controversy suggests the remark, which is also pertinent to the other controversy, that it put the socalled reforms upon their merits. Dr. W. T. Harris, commenting upon the struggles over ideas that have occurred in Massachusetts, has said: "The fine qualities of soul that discover lofty ideals and compare them with existing customs and usages, and thus hold up to view the defects and shortcomings of what isthese high qualities of soul are met by other high qualities of mind engaged in discovering all the good that is realized in institutions as they are. Very great ability in the administration of institutions already existing implies a keen perception of the good points which they possess. Hence we have this paradox: Progressive changes originate here in Massachusetts because the conservative element is so intelligent and understands so well the good that is still contained in the old. The would-be reformer has nowhere else to submit to so severe an ordeal as here. Hence there is no place where a reform starts with so many chances of success; for it is sure to be winnowed of its impractical before it gets on its feet here."1

1 Semi-Centennial Celebration, State Normal School, Framingham, July 2, 1889, pp. 10, 11.

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CHAPTER IX

THE CONTROVERSY WITH RELIGIOUS SECTARIES

It might have been foreseen, and perhaps was foreseen, that the educational revival in Massachusetts, and in the country at large, would sooner or later encounter serious religious opposition. For more than a century and a half from the founding of the public schools in that Commonwealth dogmatic religious instruction was given in them without let or hindrance. This was one object that the founders of these schools had in view in founding them. At first the colony was practically homogeneous in religion, and the utmost pains were taken to keep it so. The Church and the State were but the obverse and reverse side of the same society. The free use in the schools of the shorter of the two Westminster catechisms gave no offence. The frequent visits of the minister to the school to catechise the children were taken as a thing of course. In fact, the minister had a definite educational status assigned him by the school law. Then The New England Primer, so long milk for New England babes, was Calvinistic through and through. Such was the old order of things. About the beginning of this century a new order set in. Dogmatic instruction in the schools began to retire into the background. The Shorter Catechism progressively fell out of

the schools. The minister's visits for the old purpose became less and less frequent. The New England Primer began slowly to disappear. Still the Constitution of 1780 made it the duty of the legislatures and magistrates in all future periods of the Commonwealth "to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings, sincerity and good humor, and all social and generous sentiments among the people."

The new order was due to a number of causes. The various dissenting bodies were encroaching upon the ground so long held by the established Church: the Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Universalists, and Roman Catholics. Each of these bodies had its own theological type and standard, and was more and more disposed to assert itself as stronger it grew. But no such body could expect to put its own creed into the schools: all it could do effectually was to oppose the teaching of the old creed. The split of the historic Church, when it came, resulting in the Congregational and Unitarian bodies as we know them, tended to complicate the situation. Furthermore, the spirit that animated the so-called Orthodox or evangelical denominations became more liberal, while the laicizing of the State and all its functions went steadily forward.

The new order was ushered in so gradually and easily that it is quite impossible to assign to it a definite date. The catechism, the minister as an authoritative religious teacher, and The New England

Primer did not quit the schools at any specified time: they were quitting them for a generation or more. The most significant fact in the long process is the Act of 1827, which declared that school committees should never direct to be used or purchased in any of the town schools any school books which were calculated to favor the tenets of any particular sect of Christians. This act, which was re-enacted in 1835, may be considered from two points of view. For the most part it marked a change that had already been effected. It was one of those acts of legislation that, in great degree, merely register what the slow operation of public opinion has already accomplished. Still this was not all. The old instruction, more or less toned down perhaps, still lingered in some schools, and the new legislation would naturally tend to hasten its departure. It may be said, therefore, that to all intents and purposes the old régime had been wound up and the new one practically inaugurated before Mr. Mann came to the Secretary's office. But this did not prevent friends of the old régime holding him responsible for the change.

The educational revival was something more than the setting up of a new educational order, and also something less. It revealed to men's minds more fully the state of things that had been for some time existing. Among other things, it brought society to a much fuller self-consciousness in respect to education than it had known before. This awakening caused men some men at least. Among other facts that were now laid bare was this one, that the school of the Puritans, with its dog

some rude shocks.

matic instruction in religion, had either disappeared or was on the point of disappearing. Naturally, many of those who saw this with regret, recognizing that the Board of Education and its Secretary were the two great factors that had been recently introduced into the school system, thought these agencies were the causes of the unwelcome change that was taking place, and opposed them for this reason. Sectarian opinion and sectarian feeling were far sharper edged in 1837 than they are in 1897, and it was perfectly well known to everybody that Mr. Mann was a Unitarian and that, from the first, a considerable portion of the members of the Board were so-called liberals in their religious views. Men were by no means as familiar as we are with the conception of the civil school- an institution organized and conducted for the purpose of teaching the children of the State the knowledge that they need for the uses of life and for grounding them in good morals, but that has nothing whatever to do with any formal or dogmatic religious teaching. It is not strange, therefore, that men began to beat the drum ecclesiastic. For the first time in the United States was heard the cry that has assumed in later times the well-known form, "The public schools are Godless." Those who raised this cry were actuated by different motives. Some no doubt thought the old system of religious teaching could still be retained, at least in part. Some improved the opportunity to vent their ill feeling towards the Board and the Secretary. Some took advantage of the prevailing sectarian prejudice to accomplish a purpose that they had formed for other reasons, viz.,