From Our Dublin Correspondent The growing dominance of the State in education—a tendency evident in Ireland as well as in other lands, especially in the North—has disquieted many. The Bishop of Achonry, Dr. Morrisroe (nearly coterminous with County Roscommon), spoke on this matter last week, and supported the plan which the best patriots have advocated, of a Council of Education that could check or override the Department.
" Not only parents, but experts also, such as teachers and managers," Dr. Morrisroe said, "should have something to say in the selection and arrangement of the school programmes, so that it seems that much attention ought to be given to the suggestions now being made for setting up ar Advisory Council of Education, representative of all classes in the community.
Cultured Fraud
" A man," said his Lordship, " was commonly regarded as cultured if he dressed well, affected polished manners and could speak about the latest novels. Such an individual might be, and often was, a real fraud from this point of view.
" There can be no genuine culture in the Catholic sense anyway, without an acquaintance with philosophy, which teaches us the causes of things, and without a knowledge of the sacred sciences, which tell Us what we really are; what our destiny is; what are our relations with God; with Christ, and with the world to come."
Value of Latin Knowledge of Latin would enable educated Catholics to converse with one another, all the world over. In Greek, too, were written the works of the great philosophers, which formed the foundation of Catholic systems of philosophy.
The importance, then, of these languages should not be ignored in any programme of higher education worthy of the name, and the schools that still retained them in their curricula deserved to be placed on a pedestal quite apart.