Missionary labour and reformatory institutions, valuable as they are, presuppose an educated community. To instruct and reform a race that can neither read their Bible nor derive knowledge from books, is a task beyond human achievement. The dearest interests of society, therefore, call loudly for _Secular Education_,—the greatest boon which philanthropy ever demanded from the State. The minister who, in the face of sectarian factions, dares not identify himself with a large legislative measure for the education of the people, and resigns office when he fails to carry it, prefers power to duty, and, if he ever possessed it, divests himself of the character of a statesman and a patriot. He may be justified in punishing the law-breaker who cannot read his statutes, but he is himself the breaker of laws of a higher order, and sanctioned by a higher tribunal. If the education of the people is to be attempted either by partial or comprehensive legislation, the existing system is utterly inefficient. The teacher, however wisely chosen and well qualified, has not at his command the means of imparting knowledge. He may pour it in by the ear, or extract it from the printed page, or exhibit it in caricature in the miserable embellishments of the school-book, but unless he teaches through the eye, the great instrument of knowledge, by means of truthful pictures, or instruments, or models, or by the direct exhibition of the products of nature and of art, which can be submitted to the scrutiny of the senses, no satisfactory instruction can be conveyed.[65] Every school, indeed, should have a museum, however limited and humble. Even from within its narrow sphere objects of natural history and antiquities might be collected, and duplicates exchanged; and we are sure that many a chimney-piece in the district would surrender a tithe of its curiosities for the public use. Were the British Museum, and other overflowing collections, to distribute among provincial museums the numerous duplicates which they possess, they would gradually pass into the schools, and before a quarter of a century elapsed, museums would be found in every proper locality. [65] “The importance of establishing a _permanent Museum of Education_ in this country, with the view of _introducing improvements in the existing methods of instruction_, and specially directing public attention in a practical manner to the question of National Education, has been of late generally recognised.”—_Third Report of the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851_, presented to both Houses of Parliament, p. 37. Lond., 1856.