The final word on the subject may be that there is a diversity of ideals, that the English ideal (speaking generally) is moral, and the Parisian ideal artistic.
CHAPTER IV
MORAL TRAINING
Difficulty of the Subject.
The Effects of Moral Teaching not easily ascertained.
This chapter is very difficult to write, because I shall have to deal with what cannot be accurately ascertained. A man can hardly know how far he has been successful in the moral training of his own sons. As to the boys in the nearest school, he may ascertain what is taught them by their masters, but he cannot know the effects of the teaching on the formation of their characters; that can only be known much later, if at all. And when we pass to distant schools our knowledge must be so general and so vague that no trustworthy argument can be founded upon it.
Personal Influence.
The truth is that moral training is chiefly an affair of personal influence, and that influence of this kind is a special gift. For example, Dr. Arnold had the gift in the supreme degree, but a man might be placed in control of the same educational machinery and yet be destitute of it.
However, some general truths may be taken note of, and they may help us to understand the subject so far as it can be said to be intelligible.
Necessity of a National Moral Sense.
Want of Freshness of Feeling in France.