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Show NEUTRAL FRENCH CHILD Popular Text Book Changed. God and Prayer Eliminated. Bah! Freedom of Conscience in French Republic. (From Chicago Inter Ocean.) That there shall be no sectarian teaching in the public schools seems to normal Americans a necessary neces-sary consequence of that separation of church and state without which religious freedom cannot exist. And while there has been of late years a feeling that the schools may have gone too far in this matter mat-ter and eliminated, not only sectarian teaching, but also proper recognition of religion as the foundation founda-tion and safeguard of morals, probably the average aver-age American, who has not followed the facts, feels that the French government, in secularizing the public schools, has in some way taken a step forward. for-ward. We are reminded by Mrs. Bellamy Storer's article ar-ticle in the current North American Review that "secular" education is, like other things, a matter of definition, and that the French definition is now one defining something that Americans would regard re-gard as "anti-religious" and even "atheistic," instead in-stead of merely "secular" or "non-sectarian." The present French practice is illustrated by comparative extracts from a very popular French school book, as it was before 1905 and as it is now. The book is called "The Tour of France by Two Children." It was written by a schoolmaster named Bruno many years ago and is now in its three hundred hun-dred and fifty-first edition. It is the story of how two little orphan boys made their way on foot from Phalsbourg in Lorraine to an uncle in Marseilles, shortly after the close of the war with Germany. In their journey they cross more than half the length and breadth of France. Into the tale of their experiences, adventures and hardships, the author has woven much information about the industries, the monuments and history of France, with notices of the lives and achievements of her great men. To give this instruction in the form of an interesting in-teresting story was the author's purpose, and he accomplished ac-complished it so well that his book was "crowned" by the Academy for its usefulness in education and as a model of pure and simple French style. But Schoolmaster Bruno would hardly know his book if he could see it now. One of the early scenes is of the last moments .of the father by whose death the little boys are sent on their long journey. Here is the way the author wrote it, and the way it is now : Then his eyes turned to the open window, through which he could see the deep-blue sky; his dying gaze lighted up with a pure flame; he seemed now to wish to think of God alone. His soul lifted itself up to Him in one last prayer, confiding to His supreme protection the two orphans who knelt beside his hod. That is, French children may not now read in their school books about a father on earth who believes be-lieves in a Father in heaven. Again, the children are benighted in a forest, and must sleep under a big tree. Here are the author's and the "secularized" versions : He passed his arm He passed his arm about his brother's neck, about his brother's neck ; and his eyes were on the his tired eves closed and point of closing when a thought came to him. "Andre," he said, "as I am going to sleep I must say my evening prayer." "Yes, dear Julien, we will say it together." And the two orphans, lost amidst the solitude of the mountain, raised their young hearts to heaven in the same prayer. Then his eyes turned toward the open window through which ho could see the deep-blue sky. He seemed to be seeking seek-ing with his gaze that distant frontier of his dear native land where he would never go, but where his sons, without his protection henceforth, hence-forth, had promised that they would go. soon he was asleep. His little head rested upon Andre's shoulder, who protected the child against the chill night air and listened to his quiet breathing. This scarcely perceptible sound alone broke the silence which enveloped them in the great solitude soli-tude of the mountain in which they were lost. This touching scene is suppressed and replaced with barren words, lest the French "neutral" child get the idea that prayer might sometimes be consoling. consol-ing. And even facts are suppressed. Thus when the boys came in sight of Lyons here is what they see in fact, but don't see in the "revised" vision : Before them rose the high hills, crowned by seventeen forts, and by the church of Four-vieres. Before them rose the high hills crowned by the. seventeen fort3 of Lyons. Now, the church of Fourvieres is there still, and is the most conspicuous point in the landscape. But the "neutral" French child must not read about churches, or churchmen, or even look at the picture of a church, lest his mind be no longer "free." The author, in noticing the famous men of Bur-gandy, Bur-gandy, mentioned St. Bernard, Bossuet, Bauban and Buffon, among others. The revised version omits St. Bernard and Bossuet. In speaking of what the children saw at Laval, the author mentioned the statue there to the great surgeon, Ambroise Pare, and told the story of how he replied, when congratulated on the marvelous recovery re-covery of a patient: "I dressed his wound; God cured him." That sentence was carved by the sculptor, sculp-tor, David d'Angers, on the base of the statue, though the "revised" version omits it, and so omits that for which Pare is better remembered than for being the physician of four kings. And a picture in the original book of the Cathedral Cathe-dral of Rheims is suppressed, and replaced by a map of Champagne, though the change involves the suppression sup-pression of the story of the cornation of Charles VII, and of Joan of Arc. . It does not seem necessary to give more illustrations. illustra-tions. A French school book which suppresses Joan ' of Arc, the great heroine of France and foremost among the world's illustrious women, is not merely "secularized." It is decadent in the worst sense of the word. If this be the kind of teaching that the French public schools are now giving, we cannot be surprised sur-prised that crime, especially among the young, is increasing in France by leaps and bounds, and that a French regiment was recently guilty of the crowning crown-ing military infamy of defiling and trampling on its own colors. |