ers was impaired by long sitting; and as soft delicate hands were necessary, they were not allowed to do any household work.

In fact, Dr Bell did everything he could. There was no limit to his energy and versatility. Benefit societies, schools, friendly meetings, clubs, visiting from house to house, advising with farmers,—nothing came amiss to him; his large, fiery, friendly nature had an infection in it which few could resist. He was hospitable to the extent of keeping open house; and under his influence the social spirit flowed and spread like a strong tide all over the neighbourhood.

CHAPTER VII.

ANDREW BELL AND JOSEPH LANCASTER.

THESE are the dioscuri of modern popular education. Like other great and small "discoverers," they hated each other with a perfect hatred; they accused each other of stealing each other's "ideas;" they did their utmost to fence in the sky for the benefit of their own separate and separating "Churches;" and they taught their followers to cultivate a mutual detestation, which has no parallel outside of science or theology. Soldiers, who have to make war on other nations, frequently form the most lasting friendships among the men they take prisoner; but to men engaged in the war of words, there is no custom of capture, and little opportunity of turning hatred into affection. How many wakeful nights has this unchristian spirit cost the present biographer! Bell and Lancaster were as jealous of each other as two women in love with the same man; and even the common love of children and education could not bring them into one mind. Must human affairs always progress by the method of antagonism-" madman or slave, must man be one?" George the Third, in an interview with Lancaster, said to him: "It is my will that every child in my king

ANDREW BELL AND JOSEPH LANCASTER.

ANDREW

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dom should be able to read the Bible." The wish never went an inch beyond the expression; the words remained mere words; no step was taken to carry the royal will into the cottages of the poor. Here were two seemingly heaven-sent men who could have done it; but instead of doing it, they set to work and quarrelled. They were men eager to label their names across the education of the people, and to turn their systems into banners for the marshalling of hostile/camps. They were also both Christians, followers of the eternal Peace-maker, of the Divine Son, who asked His Father to forgive the very men who were nailing Him to the cross. But religion is too good for everyday concerns; it must not be mixed up with the secular-it must be kept exclusively for Sunday wear. It lends itself beautifully to hymns and prayers, and is not out of place in compositions called sermons; "but it is a foreign leaven in everyday intercourse between man and man-between Lancaster and Bell, that must be regulated, like other pieces of business, by the multiplication-table. Thus, and thus only, is "civilisation" to be advanced. Besides, if religion is good, it is good chiefly for others.

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Joseph Lancaster had a message; and his story of it is not without pathos. "I was walking," he says, "from Deptford to Greenwich, when my attention was attracted by this inscription: To the glory of God, and to the benefit of poor children;' and while I was pleasantly meditating upon the founder giving glory to God, the children burst forth into singing His praises. My heart was melted; and it pleased God to implant within me a fervent wish and desire that I might one day thus

honour Him; and through all the vicissitudes of the intervening period, my hope was seldom long clouded. I knew not how it was to be accomplished; but, being assured that it was a divine impression, my mind was constantly endeavouring to find out a way. In 1798 I proposed something of this kind to a number of gentlemen, but it failed. I had not long entered into the straw-hat business; but I was persuaded this was the channel to accomplish my wish."

Here, surely, in the deadest time of England's religious feeling, was a manifestation, in the dull streets of Deptford, of the divine. Lancaster, at the age of eighteen, opened a school in his father's house; and not long after he happened to possess himself of a copy of Dr Bell's celebrated Report. In the year 1804, he wrote to Dr Bell from the "Free School, Borough Road," on the "21st of 11th month," enumerating his difficulties, and asking for advice. He mentions, as one of the "obstacles to the diffusion" of popular education, "the price of sand in London-9s. the load;" and he asks for "further information on the use of the sand,-whether dry or wet, and how the boys were first taught their letters." Lancaster further offers to travel down and talk with Dr Bell. The meeting between these two celebrated personages took place in 1805.

Dr Bell's account of their meeting is full of prejudice. His feelings were, no doubt, much influenced by Church considerations; and as he was writing to Mrs Trimmer-a buttress, if not a pillar, of the Churchhe was more likely to show these feelings and their influences with perfect openness. He says that Lancaster

"seemed disposed to copy him on every point," except on that of the training of teachers. And the good Doctor, with his eager practical mind, is filled with scorn at the notions of Lancaster upon this subject. Lancaster, with the naïve simpleness of an inquiring mind, had expressed his opinion that it was as well for a teacher to know something of the nature and growth of the mind and soul upon which he had to operate. Dr Bell calls this " forming his teachers by lectures on the passions;" and thunders out, "Nothing was ever so burlesque !" And he goes on,-seeing with perfect truth, as far as he does see "It is by attending the school, seeing what is going on there, and taking a share in the office of tuition, that teachers are to be formed, and not by lectures and abstract instruction." Most true; but "it takes all sorts to make up a world." How to train a teacher is a problem which still remains to be solved; and at the present time there are many good and true minds hard at work upon it. But to put the question upon its lowest ground, it is plain that the teacher, who has intrusted to him a very difficult task, ought to know something, be it more or less, of growing human nature,—of the laws according to which human knowledge is acquired, and of the chief hindrances to the production of strong minds and healthy souls,just as the carpenter is the better for knowing the grain and fibre of woods, and the farmer for learning the chemical components of soil and manure.

If Dr Bell ever had any kindly feeling for, or sympathy with, Lancaster and his labours, the notable Mrs Trimmer, who-according to her own account-had