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ments of abstract doctrines, but attacked Satan wherever he found him, and with most vigour and success in his fleshly strongholds; and on the 15th of June 1806, "preached twice, and the same sermon, both forenoon and afternoon, on cow-pock." But he not merely preached, he vaccinated everybody, "from seventyeight years of age to twelve months;" and he set every body vaccinating, his own wife (before she left him), old women, and schoolmistresses, in all the parishes round about and so thorough and successful was his treatment, that there was not a single instance of any of his patients being attacked by small-pox, which was at that time a periodical epidemic of the most fatal nature in every part of Great Britain. It appears that, as there were poets before Homer, and novelists before Cervantes, there was also a vaccinator before Dr Jenner. This was Benjamin Jesty, of Downshay, near Swanage. He lived to be seventy-nine, and was, says his veracious tombstone, "particularly noted for having been the first person (known) who introduced the cow-pox by inoculation, and who, from his great strength of mind, made the experiment from the cow on his wife and two sons, in the year 1774." The historic tombstone is silent as to whether his great strength of mind induced him to try the experiment upon himself.

Dr Bell also introduced the manufacture of strawplait into Swanage. This was at best a doubtful advantage. The persons who purchased the straw-plait did not pay the workers in money, but in truck,—thus earning a profit at both ends. The health of the work

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

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.

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

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