THOUGHTS

ON

EDUCATIONAL TOPICS

AND

INSTITUTIONS. 

BY

GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 

BOSTON:PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY. MDCCCLIX. 

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, byGEORGE S. BOUTWELL, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District ofMassachusetts. 

STEREOTYPED BYHOBART AND ROBBINS, BOSTON. 

To

THE TEACHERS OF MASSACHUSETTS, WHOSE

ENLIGHTENED DEVOTION TO THEIR DUTIES

HAS

CONTRIBUTED EFFECTUALLY TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, This Volume

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. G. S. B. 

CONTENTS. 

 PAGETHE INTRINSIC NATURE AND VALUE OF LEARNING, AND ITSINFLUENCE UPON LABOR, 9

EDUCATION AND CRIME, 49

REFORMATION OF CHILDREN, 75

THE CARE AND REFORMATION OF THE NEGLECTED AND EXPOSEDCLASSES OF CHILDREN, 86

ELEMENTARY TRAINING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 131

THE RELATIVE MERITS OF PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS AND ENDOWEDACADEMIES, 152

THE HIGH SCHOOL SYSTEM, 164

NORMAL SCHOOL TRAINING, 203

FEMALE EDUCATION, 221

THE INFLUENCE, DUTIES, AND REWARDS, OF TEACHERS, 241

LIBERTY AND LEARNING, 274

MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL FUND, 308

A SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION, 339

THE INTRINSIC NATURE AND VALUE OF LEARNING, AND ITS INFLUENCE UPONLABOR. 

[Lecture before the American Institute of Instruction. ]

Words and terms have, to different minds, various significations; and weoften find definitions changing in the progress of events. Bailey sayslearning is "skill in languages or sciences. " To this, Walker adds whathe calls "literature, " and "skill in anything, good or bad. " Dr. Websterenlarges the meaning of the word still more, and says, "Learning is theknowledge of principles or facts received by instruction or study;acquired knowledge or ideas in any branch of science or literature;erudition; literature; science; knowledge acquired by experience, experiment, or observation. " Milton gives us a rhetorical definition ina negative form, which is of equal value, at least, with any authorityyet cited. "And though a linguist, " says Milton, "should pride himselfto have all the tongues that Babel cleft the world into, yet if he havenot studied the solid things in them, as well as the words andlexicons, he were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man, as anyyeoman or tradesman competently wise in his mother dialectonly. "--"Language is but the instrument conveying to us things useful tobe known. "

This is kindred to the saying of Locke, that "men of much reading aregreatly learned, but may be little knowing. " We must give to the term_learning_ a broad definition, if we accept Milton's statement that itsend "is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to knowGod aright;" for this necessarily implies that we are to study carefullyeverything relating to the nature of our existence, to the spot andscene of our existence, with its mysterious phenomena, and itscomparatively unexplained laws. And we must, moreover, always keep inview the personal relations and duties which the Creator has imposedupon the members of the human race. The knowledge of these relations andduties is one form of learning; the disposition and the ability toobserve and practise these relations and duties, is another and a higherform of learning. The first is the learning of the theologian, theschoolman; the latter is the learning of the practical Christian. Bothought to exist; but when they are separated, we place things abovesigns, facts above forms, life above ideas. Law and justice ought alwaysto be united; but when by error, or fraud, or usurpation, they areseparated, we observe the forms of law, but we respect the principles ofjustice. This is a good illustration of the principles which guide to atrue distinction in the forms of learning. Of all the definitionsenumerated, we must give to the word _learning_ the broadestsignification. It is safe to accept the statement of the great poet, that a man may be acquainted with many languages, and yet not belearned; even as the apostle said he should become as sounding brass ora tinkling cymbal, if he had not charity, though he spoke with thetongues of men and angels. Learning includes, no doubt, a knowledge ofthe languages, the sciences, and all literature; but it includes alsomuch else; and this much else may be more important than the enumeratedbranches. The term _learned_ has been limited, usually, by exclusiveapplication to the schoolmen; but it is a matter of doubt, especially inthis country, upon the broad definition laid down, whether there is morelearning in the schools, or out of them. This remark, if true, is noreflection upon the schools, but much in favor of the world. Those weredark ages when learning was confined to the schools; and, though we cannever be too grateful for their existence, and the fidelity with whichthey preserved the knowledge of other days, that is surely a higherattainment in the life of the race, when the learning of the worldexceeds the learning of the cloister, the school, and the college. 

In a private conversation, Professor Guyot made a remark which seems tohave a public value. "You give to your schools, " said he, "credit thatis really due to the world. Looking at America with the eye of anEuropean, it appears to me that your world is doing more and yourschools are doing less, in the cause of education, than you are inclinedto believe. " For one, though I ought, as much as any, to stand for theschools, I give a qualified assent to the truth of this observation. There is much learning among us which we cannot trace directly to theschools; but the schools have introduced and fostered a spirit which hasgiven to the world the power to make itself learned. It is much easierto disseminate what is called the spirit of education, than it was tocreate that spirit, and preserve it when there were few to do it homage. For this we are indebted to the schools. Unobserved in the process ofchange, but happy in its results, the business of education is not nowconfined to professional teachers. 

The greatest change of all has been wrought by the attention given tofemale education, so that the mother of this generation is not compelledto rely exclusively upon the school and the paid teacher, public orprivate, but can herself, as the teacher ordained by nature, aid herchildren in the preparatory studies of life. This power does not oftenmanifest itself in a regular system of domestic school studies anddiscipline, but its influence is felt in a higher home preparation, andin the exhibition of better ideas of what a school should be. And we mayassume, with all due respect to our maternal ancestry, that this fact isa modern feature, comparatively, in American civilization. Femaleeducation has given rise to some excesses of opinion and conduct; butthe world is entirely safe, especially the self-styled lords ofcreation, and may wisely advocate a system of general education withoutregard to sex, and leave the effect to those laws of nature andrevelation which are to all and in all, and cannot permanently beavoided or disobeyed. 

The number of educators has strangely increased, and they often appearwhere they might least be expected. We speak of the revival ofeducation, and think only of the change that has taken place in the lasttwenty years in the appropriations of money, the style of school-houses, and the fitness of professional teachers for the work in which they areengaged; but these changes, though great, are scarcely more noteworthythan those that have occurred in the management of our shops, mills, andfarms. When we write the sign or utter the sound which symbolizes_Teacher_, what figure, being, or qualities, are brought before us? We_should_ see a person who, in the pursuit of knowledge, is self-moving, and, in the exercise of the influence which knowledge gives, is able toappreciate the qualities of others; and who, moreover, possesses enoughof inventive power to devise means by which he can lead pupils, students, or hearers, in the way they ought to go. We naturally look forsuch persons in the lecture-room, the school, and the pulpit. And wefind them there; but they are also to be found in other places. Thereare thousands of such men in America, engaged in the active pursuits ofthe day. They are farmers, mechanics, merchants, operatives. They do notoften follow text-books, and therefor are none the worse, but much thebetter teachers. Insensibly they have taken on the spirit of the teacherand the school, and, apparently ignorant of the fact, are, in the quietpursuits of daily life, leaders of classes following some great thought, or devoted to some practical investigation. And in one respect theseteachers are of a higher order than _some_--not all, nor most--of ourprofessional teachers. They never cease to be students. When a man orwoman puts on the garb of the teacher, and throws off the garb of thestudent, you will soon find that person so dwindled and dwarfed, thatneither will hang upon the shoulders. This happens sometimes in theschool, but never in the world. 

The last twenty-five years have produced two new features in ourcivilization, that are at once a cause and a product of learning. Ispeak of the Press, and of Associations for mutual improvement. 

The newspaper press of America, having its centre in the city of NewYork, is more influential than the press of any other country. It maynot be conducted with greater ability; though, if compared with theEnglish press, the chief difference unfavorable to America is found inthe character of the leading editorial articles. In enterprise, intelegraphic business, maritime, and political news and information, thepress of the United States is not behind that of Great Britain. 

It must, however, be admitted that a given subject is usually morethoroughly discussed in a single issue from the English press; but it isby no means certain that public questions are, upon the whole, bettercanvassed in England than in America. Indeed, the opposite is probablytrue. Our press will follow a subject day after day, with the aid ofnew thoughts and facts, until it is well understood by the reader. European ideas of journalism cannot be followed blindly by the press ofAmerica. The journalist in Europe writes for a select few. His readersare usually persons of leisure, if they have not always culture andtaste; and the issue of the morning paper is to them what the appearanceof the quarterly, heavy or racy, is to the cultivated American reader. 

But the American journalist, whatever his taste may be, cannot afford toaddress himself to so small an audience. He writes literally for themillion; for I take it to be no exaggeration to say that paragraphs andarticles are often read by millions of people in America. This fact isan important one, as it furnishes a good test of the standard taste andlearning of the people. Our press answers the demand which the peoplemake upon it. The mass of newspaper readers are not, in a scholasticsense, well-educated persons. Newspaper writers do not, therefore, trouble themselves about the colleges with their professors, but theyseek rather to gain the attention and secure the support of the greatbody of the people, who know nothing of colleges except through thenewspapers. We have always been permitted to infer the intellectual andmoral character of the audiences of Demosthenes, from the orations ofDemosthenes; and may we not also infer the character of the Americanpeople, from the character of the press that they support? In a singleissue may often be found an editorial article upon some question ofpresent interest; a sermon, address, or speech, from a leading mind ofthe country or the world; letters from various quarters of the globe;extracts from established literary and scientific journals; originalessays upon political, literary, scientific, and religious subjects; anditems of local or general interest for all classes of readers. Thisproduct of the press, in quantity and quality, could not be distributed, week after week, and year after year, among an ignorant class of people. It could be accepted by intelligent, thinking, progressive minds only;and, as a fact necessarily coëxisting, we find the newspaper pressequally essential to the best-educated persons among us. The newspaperpress in America is a century and a half old; but its power does notantedate this century, and its growth has been chiefly within the lasttwenty-five years. What that growth has been may be easily seen by anyone who will compare the daily sheet of the last generation with thedaily sheet of this; and the future of the American press may be easilypredicted by those who consider the progressive influences among us, ofwhich the newspaper must always be the truest representative. 

Within the same brief period of time it has become the fixed custom ofthe people to associate together for educational objects. 

As a consequence, we have the lyceum for all, libraries for all, professional institutes and clubs for merchants, mechanics, and farmers, and, at last, free libraries and lectures for the operatives in themills. Where these institutions can exist, there must be a high order ofgeneral learning; and where these institutions do exist, and aresustained, the learning of the people, whether high or low at any givenmoment, must be rapidly improved. Yet some of these agencies--lecturesand libraries, for example--are not free from serious faults. It mayseem rash and indefensible to criticize lectures upon the platform ofthe lecturer; but, as the audience can inflict whatever penalty theyplease upon the speaker, he will so far assume responsibility as to saythat amusement is not the highest object of a single lecture, and whensought by managers as the desirable object of a whole course, thelecture-room becomes a theatre of dissipation; surely not so bad asother forms of dissipation, but yet so distinctly marked, and sopernicious in its influence, as to be comparatively unworthy of generalsupport. Let it not, however, be inferred that wit, humor, and drolleryeven, are to be excluded from the lecture-room; but they should alwaysbe employed as means by which information is communicated. Betweenlecturers equal in other respects, one with the salt of humor, native tothe soil, should be preferred; but it is a sad reflection upon publictaste, when a person whose entire intellectual capital is wit, humor, orbuffoonery, is preferred to men of solid learning. But it is a worseview of human nature, when men of real merit and worth depreciatethemselves and lower the public taste, by attempting to do what, atbest, they can have but ill success in, and what they would despisethemselves for, were they to succeed completely. Shakspeare says of ajester:

 "This fellow's wise enough to play the fool; And to do that well, craves a kind of wit:

 * * * * *

 This is a practice As full of labor as a wise man's art: For folly, that he wisely shows, is fit; But wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit. "

A kindred mental dissipation follows in the steps of progress, anddemands aliment from our public libraries. In the selection of booksthere is a wide range, from the trashy productions of the fifth-ratenovelist, to stately history and exact science. It is, however, to beassumed that libraries will not be established until they are wanted, and that the want will not be pressing until there is a taste forreading somewhat general. Where this taste exists, it is fair to assumethat it is in some degree elevated. The direction, however, which thetaste of any community is to take, after the establishment of a publiclibrary, depends, in a great degree, upon the selection of books for itsshelves. Two dangers are to be avoided. The first, and greatest, is theselection of books calculated to degrade the morals or intellect of thereader. This danger is apparent, and to be shunned needs but to be seen. Books, of more or less intrinsic value, are so abundant and cheap, thatcommon men must go out of their way to gather a large collection thatshall not contain works of real merit. But the object should be toexclude all worthless and pernicious works, and meet and improve thepublic taste, by offering it mental food better than that to which ithas been accustomed. The other danger is negative, rather than positive;but, as books are comparatively worthless when they are not read, itbecomes a matter of great moment to select such as will touch the publicmind at a few points, at least. It is indeed possible, and, under theguidance of some persons, it would be natural, to encumber the shelvesof a library with _good books_ that might ever remain so, saving onlythe contributions made to mould and mice. 

Now, if you will pardon a little more fault-finding, --which is, Iconfess, a quality without merit, or, as Byron has it, "A man must serve his time to every trade Save censure--critics all are ready made, "--

I will hazard the opinion that the practice of establishing libraries intowns for the benefit of a portion of the inhabitants only is likely toprove pernicious in the end. To be sure, reading for some is better thanreading for none; but reading for all is better than either. InMassachusetts there is a general law that permits cities and towns toraise money for the support of libraries; yet the legislature, in a fewcases, has granted charters to library associations. With due deference, it may very well be suggested, that, where a spirit exists which leads afew individuals to ask for a charter, it would be better to turn thisspirit into a public channel, that all might enjoy its benefits. And itwill happen, generally, that the establishment of a public library willbe less expensive to the friends of the movement, and the advantageswill be greater; while there will be an additional satisfaction in thegood conferred upon others. 

We shall act wisely if we apply to books a maxim of the Greeks: "Allthings in common amongst friends. " Under this maxim Cicero hasenumerated, as principles of humanity, not to deny one a little runningwater, or the lighting his fire by ours, if he has occasion; to give thebest counsel we are able to one who is in doubt or distress; which, sayshe, "are things that do good to the person that receives them, and areno loss or trouble to him that confers them. " And he quotes, withapprobation, the words of Ennius:

 "He that directs the wandering traveller Doth, as it were, light another's torch by his own; Which gives him ne'er the less of light, for that It gave another. "

A good book is a guide to the reader, and a well-selected library willbe a guide to many. And shall we give a little running water, and turnaside or choke up the streams of knowledge? light the evening torch, andleave the immortal mind unillumined? give free counsel to the ignorantor distressed, when he might easily be qualified to act as his owncounsellor? In July 1856, Mr. Everett gave five hundred dollars toward alibrary for the High School in his native town of Dorchester; and in1854 Mr. Abbott Lawrence gave an equal sum to his native town for theestablishment of a public library. These are not large donations, if weconsider only the amount of money given; but it is difficult to suggestany other equal appropriation that would be as beneficial, in a publicsense. These donations are noble, because conceived in a spirit ofcomprehensive liberality. They are examples worthy of imitation; and Iventure to affirm, there is not one of our New England towns that hasnot given to the world a son able to make a similar contribution to thecause of general learning. Is it too much to believe that a publiclibrary in a town will double the number of persons having a taste forreading, and consequently double the number of well-educated people?For, though we are not educated by mere reading, it is yet likely tohappen that one who has a taste for books will also acquire habits ofobservation, study, and reflection. 

Professional institutes and clubs also serve to increase the sum ofgeneral learning. They have thus far avoided the evil which has waitedor fastened upon similar associations in Europe, --subserviency topolitical designs. Every profession or interest of labor has peculiarideas and special purposes. These ideas and purposes may be wiselypromoted by distinct organizations. Who can doubt the utility ofassociations of merchants, mechanics, and farmers? They furnishopportunities for the exchange of opinions, the exhibition of products, the dissemination of ideas, and the knowledge of improvements, that arethus wisely made the property of all. Knowledge begets knowledge. Whatis the distinguishing fact between a good school and a poor one? Is itnot, that in a good school the prevailing public sentiment is on theside of knowledge and its acquisition? And does not the same factdistinguish a learned community from an ignorant community? If, in avillage or city of artisans, each one makes a small annual contributionto the general stock of knowledge, the aggregate progress will beappreciable, and, most likely, considerable. If, on the other hand, eachone plods by himself, the sum of professional knowledge cannot beincreased, and is likely to be diminished. 

The moral of the parable of the ten talents is eminently true in mattersof learning. "Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall haveabundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even thatwhich he hath. " We cannot conceive of a greater national calamity thanan industrial population delving in mental sluggishness at unrelievedand unchanging tasks. The manufacture of pins was commenced in Englandin 1583, and for two hundred and fifty years she had the exclusivecontrol of the trade; yet all that period passed away withoutimprovement, or change in the process; while in America the business wasrevolutionized, simplified, and economized one-half, in the period offive years. In 1840 the valuation of Massachusetts was about threehundred millions of dollars; but it is certain that a large portion ofthis sum should have been set off against the constant impoverishment ofthe land, commencing with the settlement of the state, --the natural andunavoidable result of an ignorant system of farm labor. The revival ofeducation in America was soon followed by a marked improvement in theleading industries of the people, and especially in the department ofagriculture. The principle of association has not yet been as beneficialto the farmers as to the mechanics; but the former are soon to becompensated for the delay. With the exception of the business ofdiscovering small planets, which seem to have been created for thepurpose of exciting rivalry among a number of enthusiastic, well-minded, but comparatively secluded gentlemen, agricultural learning has made themost marked progress in the last ten years. But an agriculturalpopulation is professionally an inert population; and, therefore, as inthe accumulation of John Jacob Astor's fortune, it was more difficult totake the first step than to make all the subsequent movements. Now, however, the principle of association is giving direction and force tothe labors of the farmer; and it is easy for any person to draw tohimself, in that pursuit, the results of the learning of the world. 

Libraries and lectures for the operatives in the manufactoriesconstitute another agency in the cause of general learning. The city ofLawrence, under the lead of well-known public-spirited gentlemen there, has the honor of introducing the system in America. A movement, to whichthis is kindred, was previously made in England; but that movement hadfor its object the education of the operatives in the simple elements oflearning, and among the females in a knowledge of household duties. AnEnglish writer says: "Many employers have already established schools inconnection with their manufactories. From many instances before us, wemay take that of Mr. Morris, of Manchester, who has risen, himself, fromthe condition of a factory operative, and who has felt in his own personthe disadvantages under which that class of workmen labor. He hasintroduced many judicious improvements. He has spent about one hundredand fifty pounds in ventilating his mills; and has established alibrary, coffee-room, class-room, weekly lectures, and a system ofindustrial training. The latter has been established for females, ofwhom he employs a great many. This class of girls generally go to themills without any knowledge of household duties; they are taught in theschools to sew, knit, " etc. 

But, in the provision made at Lawrence for intellectual culture, it isassumed, very properly, that the operatives are familiar with thebranches usually taught in the public schools. This could not be assumedof an English manufacturing population, nor, indeed, of any townpopulation, considered as a whole. Herein America has an advantage overEngland. Our laborers occupy a higher standpoint intellectually, and inthat proportion their labors are more effective and economical. Themanagers and proprietors at Lawrence were influenced by a desire toimprove the condition of the laborers, and had no regard to anypecuniary return to themselves, either immediate or remote. And it wouldbe a sufficient satisfaction to witness the growth of knowledge andmorality, thereby elevating society, and rendering its institutions moresecure. 

These higher results will be accompanied, however, by others ofsufficient importance to be considered. When we _hire_, or, what is, for this inquiry, the same thing, _buy_ that commodity called, _labor_, what do we expect to get? Is it merely the physical force, the animallife contained in a given quantity of muscle and bone? In ordinary caseswe expect these, but in all cases we expect something more. We sometimesbuy, and at a very high cost, too, what has, as a product, the leastconceivable amount of manual labor in it, --a professional opinion, forexample; but we never buy physical strength merely, nor physicalstrength at all, unless it is directed by some intellectual force. Thedescending stream has power to drive machinery, and the arm of the idiothas force for some mechanical service, but they equally lack thedirecting mind. We are not so unwise as to purchase the power of thestream, or the force of the idiot's arm; but we pay for its applicationin the thing produced, and we often pay more for the skill that hasdirected the power than for the power itself. The river that now movesthe machinery of a factory in which many scores of men and women findtheir daily labor, and earn their daily bread, was employed a hundredyears ago in driving a single set of mill-stones; and thus a man and boywere induced to divide their time lazily between the grist in the hopperand the fish under the dam. The river's power has not changed; but theinventive, creative genius of man has been applied to it, and new andastonishing results are produced. With man himself this change has beeneven greater. In proportion to the population of the country, we aredaily dispensing with manual labor, and yet we are daily increasing thenational production. There is more mind directing the machinerypropelled by the forces of nature, and more mind directing the machineryof the human body. The result is, that a given product is furnished byless outlay of physical force. Formerly, with the old spinning-wheel andhand-loom, we put a great deal of bone and muscle into a yard of cloth;now we put in very little. We have substituted mind for physical force, and the question is, which is the more economical? Or, in other words, is it of any consequence to the employer whether the laborer is ignorantor intelligent?

Before we discuss this point abstractly, let us notice the conduct ofmen. Is any one willing to give an ignorant farm laborer as much as heis ready to pay for the services of an intelligent man? And if not, whythe distinction? And if an ignorant man is not the best man upon a farm, is he likely to be so in a shop or mill? And if not, we see how theproprietors of factories are interested in elevating the standard oflearning, in the mills and outside. But they are not singular in this. All classes of employers are equally concerned in the education of thelaborer; for learning not only makes his labor more valuable to himself, but the market price of the product is generally reduced, and the changeaffects favorably all interests of society. This benefit is one of thefirst in point of time, and the one, perhaps, most appreciable of allwhich learning has conferred upon the laborer. As each laborer, with thesame expenditure of physical force, produces a greater result, of coursethe aggregate products of the world are vastly increased, although theyrepresent only the same number of laborers that a less quantity wouldhave represented under an ignorant system. 

The division of these products upon any principle conceivable leaves forthe laborer a larger quantity than he could have before commanded; for, although the share of the wealthy may be disproportionate, their abilityto consume is limited; and, as poverty is the absence or want of thingsnecessary and convenient for the purposes of life, according to theideas at the time entertained, we see how a laboring population, necessarily poor while ignorance prevails, is elevated to a position ofgreater social and physical comfort, as mind takes the place of bruteforce in the industries of the world. Learning, then, is not the resultof social comfort, but social comfort is the product of intelligence, and increases or diminishes as intelligence is general or limited. It isnot, however, to be taken as granted that each laborer's positioncorresponds or answers to the sum of his own knowledge. It might happenthat an ignorant laborer would enjoy the advantages of a generalculture, to which he contributed little or nothing; and it must ofnecessity also happen that an intelligent laborer, in the midst of anignorant population, as in Ireland or India, for example, would becompelled to accept, in the main, the condition of those around him. Butthere is no evidence on the face of society now, or in its history, thatan ignorant population, whether a laboring population or not, has everescaped from a condition of poverty. And the converse of the propositionis undoubtedly true, that an intelligent laboring community will soonbecome a wealthy community. Learning is sure to produce wealth; wealthis likely to contribute to learning, but it does not necessarily produceit. Hence it follows that learning is the only means by which the poorcan escape from their poverty. 

In this statement it is assumed that education does not promote vice;and not only is this negative assumption true, but it is safe to assume, further, that education favors virtue, and that any given populationwill be less vicious when educated than when ignorant. This, I cannotdoubt, is a general truth, subject, of course, to some exceptions. 

The educational struggle in which the English people are now engaged hasmade distinct and tangible certain opinions and impressions that arelatent in many minds. There has been an attempt to show that vice hasincreased in proportion to education. This attempt has failed, thoughthere may be found, of course, in all countries, single facts, orclasses of facts, that seem to sustain such an opinion. 

Now, suppose this case, --and neither this case nor any similar one hasever occurred in real life, --but suppose crime to increase as a peoplewere educated, though there should be no increase of population; wouldthis fact prove that learning made men worse? By no means. Our answer isapparent on the face of the change itself. By education, the business, and pecuniary relations and transactions of a people are almostindefinitely multiplied; and temptations to crime, especially to crimesagainst property, are multiplied in an equal ratio. Would person orproperty be better respected in New York or Boston, if the most ignorantpopulation of the world could be substituted for the presentinhabitants of those cities? The business nerves of men are frequentlyshocked by some unexpected defalcation, and short-sighted moralists, wholack faith, exclaim, "All this is because men know so much!" Suchcertainly forget that for every defaulter in a city there are hundredsof honest men, who receive and render justly unto all, and hold withoutcheck the fortunes of others. So Mr. Drummond argued in the BritishHouse of Commons against a national system of education, because what hewas pleased to call _instruction_ had not saved William Palmer and JohnSadlier. But the truth in this matter is not at the bottom of a well; itis upon the surface. Where it is the habit of society generally to beignorant, you will find it the necessity of that society to be poor; andwhere ignorance and poverty both abound, the temptations to crime areunquestionably few, but the power to resist temptation is asunquestionably weak. The absence of crime is owing to the absence oftemptation, rather than to the presence of virtue. Such a condition ofsociety is as near to real virtue as the mental weakness of the idiot isto true happiness. 

Turning again to the discussion in the British Parliament of April, 1856, we are compelled to believe that some English statesmen are, inprinciple and in their ideas of political economy, where a portion ofthe English cotton-spinners were a hundred years ago. Thecotton-spinners thought the invention of labor-saving machinery woulddeprive them of bread; and a Mr. Ball gravely argues that schools willso occupy the attention of children, that the farmers' crops will beneglected. I am inclined to give you his own words; and I have no doubtyou will be in a measure relieved of the dulness of this essay, when youlisten to what was actually cheered, in the British Commons. Speaking ofthe resolutions in favor of a national system of instruction, Mr. Ballsaid: "It was important to consider what would be their bearing on theagricultural districts of the country. He had obtained a return from hisown farm, and, supposing the principles advocated by the noble lord wereadopted, the results would be perfectly fearful. The following was thereturn he had obtained from his agent: William Chapman, ten years aservant on his (Mr. Ball's) farm; his own wages thirteen shillings, besides a house; he had seven children, who earned nine shillings aweek; making together twenty-two shillings a week. Robert Arbor, fifteenyears on the farm; wages thirteen shillings a week, and a house; sixchildren, who earned six shillings a week; making together nineteenshillings. John Stevens, thirty-three years a servant on the farm; hisown wages fourteen shillings a week; he had brought up ten children, whose average earnings had been twelve shillings weekly, making togethertwenty-six shillings a week. Robert Carbon, twenty-two years a servanton the farm; wages thirteen shillings a week; having ten children, whoearned ten shillings a week; making together twenty-three shillings aweek. Thus it appeared that in these four families the fathers earnedfifty-three shillings weekly, and the children thirty-seven shillings aweek; so that the children earned something more than two-thirds of theamount of the earnings of the fathers. He would ask the house, if thefathers were to be deprived of the earnings of the children, how couldthey provide bread for them? It was perfectly impossible. They musteither increase the parent's wages to the amount of the loss he thussustained, or they must make it up to him from a rate. Then, again, those who were at all conversant with agriculture knew that if theydeprived the farmer of the labor of children, agriculture could not becarried on. There was no machinery by which they could get the weeds outof the land. "--_London Times_. 

The light which this statement furnishes is not hid under a bushel. Theargument deserves a more logical form, and I proceed gratuitously togive the author the benefit of a scientific arrangement. "If a nationalsystem of education is adopted, the children of my tenants will be sentto school; if the children of my tenants are sent to school, my turnipswill not be weeded; if my turnips are not weeded, I shall eat fat muttonno more. "

After this from a statesman, we need not wonder that a correspondent ofLord John Russell writes, "That a farmer near him has been heard to say, he would not give anything to a day-school; he finds that sinceSunday-schools have been established the birds have increased and eathis corn, and because he cannot now procure the services of the boys, whom he used to employ the whole of Sunday, in protecting hisfields. "--_London Times, April 13th, 1856. _

Now, I do not go to England for the purpose of making an attack upon heropinions; but, as kindred ideas prevail among us, though to a limitedextent only, the folly of them may be seen in persons at a distance, when it would not be realized by ourselves. Moreover, the presentationof these somewhat ridiculous notions brings ridicule upon a whole classof errors; and when errors are so ingrained that men cannot reason inregard to them, ridicule is often the only weapon of successful attack. And it is no compliment to an American audience for the speaker to saythat their own minds already suggest the refutation which these errorsdemand. If the chief end of man, for which boyhood should be apreparation, were to weed turnips or to frighten blackbirds fromcorn-fields, then surely the objection of Mr. Ball, and the complaintand spirit of resistance offered by Lord John Russell's farmer, would beeminently proper. But Lord John Russell did not himself assent to theview furnished by his correspondent. Mr. Ball's theory evidently is, "Take good care of the turnips, and leave the culture of the boys andgirls to chance;" and Lord John Russell's wise farmer unquestionablythinks that cereal peculations of blackbirds are more dangerous than therobberies committed by neglected children, grown to men. 

Mr. Clay, chaplain of Preston jail, says: "Thirty-six per cent. Comeinto jail unable to say the Lord's Prayer; and seventy-two per cent. Come in such a state of moral debasement that it is in vain to give theminstruction, or to teach them their duty, since they cannot understandthe meaning of the words used to them. " Here we have, as cause andeffect, the philosophy of Mr. Ball, and the facts of Mr. Clay. And, further, this philosophy is as bad in principle, when tried by the rulesof political economy, as when subjected to moral and Christian tests. 

Mr. Ball says there is no machinery by which the farmers can get theweeds out of the land. This may be true; and once there was nomachinery by which they could get the seed into the land, or the cropsfrom it. Once there was little or no inventive power among themechanics, or scientific knowledge, or even spirit of inquiry, among thefarmers. How have these changes been wrought? By education, surely, andthat moral and religious culture for which secular education is a fitpreparation. The contributions of learning to labor, in a pecuniaryaspect alone, have far exceeded the contributions of labor to learning. 

It is impossible to enumerate the evidences in support of thisstatement, but single facts will give us some conception of theiraggregated value and force. 

It was stated by Mr. Flint, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board ofAgriculture, in his Annual Report for 1855, "That the saving to thecountry, from the improvements in ploughs alone, within the lasttwenty-five years, has been estimated at no less than ten millions ofdollars a year in the work of teams, and one million in the price ofploughs, while the aggregate of the crops is supposed to have beenincreased by many millions of bushels. " From this fact, as therepresentative of a great class of facts, we may safely draw twoconclusions. First, these improvements are the products of learning, thecontribution which learning makes to labor, far exceeding in amount anytax which the cause of learning, in schools or out, imposes upon labor. Secondly, we see that a given amount of adult labor upon a farm, withthe help of the improved implements of industry, will accomplish more in1856, than the same amount of adult labor, with its attendant juvenileforce, could have accomplished in 1826. If we were fully to illustrateand sustain the latter inference, we should be required to review theimprovements made in other implements of farming, as well as in ploughs. Their positive pecuniary value, when considered in the aggregate, is toovast for general belief; and in England alone it must exceed theanticipated cost of a system of public instruction, say six millions ofpounds, or thirty millions of dollars, per year. But learning, as wehave defined it, has contributed less to farming than to otherdepartments of labor. 

The very existence of manufactures presupposes the existence oflearning. There is no branch of manufactures without its appropriatemachine; and every machine is the product of mind, enlarged anddisciplined by some sort of culture. The steam engine, thespinning-jenny, the loom, the cotton-gin, are notable instances of theadvantages derived by manufacturing industry from the prevalence oflearning. It was stated by Chief Justice Marshall, about thirty yearsago, that Whitney's cotton-gin had saved five hundred millions ofdollars to the country; and the saving, upon the same basis, cannot nowbe less than one thousand millions of dollars, --a sum too great for thehuman imagination to conceive. When we contemplate these achievements ofmind, by which manual labor has been diminished, and every physicalforce both magnified and economized, how unstatesmanlike is the viewwhich regards a human being as a bundle of muscles and bones merely, with no destiny but ignorance, servitude, and poverty!

Ancient commerce, if we omit to notice the conjecture that the mariner'scompass was in possession of the old Phoenician and Indian navigators, reproduced, rather than invented, in modern times, did not rest upon anyenlarged scientific knowledge; but, in this era, many of the sciencescontribute to the extension and prosperity of trade. After what has beenaccomplished by science, and especially by physical geography, forcommerce and navigation, we have reason to expect a system, based uponscientific knowledge and principles, which shall render the highway ofnations secure against the disasters that have often befallen those whogo down to the sea in ships. Science gave to the world the steamship, which promised for a time to engross the entire trade upon the ocean;but science again appears, constructs vessels upon better scientificprinciples, traces out the path of currents in the water and the air, and thus restores the rival powers of wind and steam to an equality ofposition in the eye of the merchant. Will any one say that all thisinures to capital, and leaves the laborer comparatively unrewarded? Weare accustomed to use the word prosperity as synonymous withaccumulation; and yet, in a true view, a man may be prosperous andaccumulate nothing. Suppose we contrast two periods in the life of anation with each other. Since the commencement of this century, thewages of a common farm laborer in America have increased seventy-five orone hundred per cent. , while the articles necessary and convenient forhis use have, upon the whole, diminished in price. Admit that there wasnothing for accumulation in the first period, and that there is nothingfor accumulation now, --is not his condition nevertheless improved? And, if so, has he not participated in the general prosperity?

Indeed, we may all accept the truth, that there is no exclusiveness inthe benefits which learning confers; and this leads me to say, next, that there ought to be no exclusiveness in the enjoyment of educationalprivileges. 

In America we agree to this; and yet, confessedly, as a practical resultwe have not generally attained the end proposed. There are two practicaldifficulties in the way. First, our aim in a system of publicinstruction is not high enough; and, secondly, we do not sufficientlyrealize the importance of educating each individual. Our aim is not highenough; and the result, like every other result, is measured and limitedby the purpose we have in view. Our public schools ought to be so goodthat private schools for instruction in the ordinary branches woulddisappear. Mr. Everett said, in reply to inquiries made by Mr. Twistleton, "I send my boy to the public school, because I know of nonebetter. " It should be the aim of the public to make their schools sogood that no citizen, in the education of his children, will pass themby. 

It is as great a privilege for the wealthy as for the poor to have anopportunity to send their children to good public schools. It is a maximin education that the teacher must first comprehend the pupil mentallyand morally; and might not many of the errors of individual and publiclife be avoided, if the citizen, from the first, were to have anaccurate idea of the world in which he is to live? The demand of laborupon education, as they are connected with every material interest ofsociety, is, that no one shall be neglected. The mind of a nation isits capital. We are accustomed to speak of money as capital; andsometimes we enlarge the definition, and include machinery, tools, flocks, herds, and lands. But for this moment let us do what we have aright to do, --go behind the definitions of lexicographers and politicaleconomists, and say, "_capital_ is the producing force of society, andthat force is mind. " Without this force, money is nothing; machinery isnothing; flocks, herds, lands, are nothing. But all these are madevaluable and efficient by the power of mind. What we callcivilization, --passing from an inferior to a superior condition ofexistence, --is a mental and moral process. If mind is the capital, --theproducing force of society, --what shall we say of the person orcommunity that neglects its improvement? Certainly, all that we shouldsay of the miser, and all that was said of the timid servant who buriedhis talent in the earth. If one mind is neglected, then we fail as ageneration, a state, a nation, as members of the human family, to answerthe highest purposes of existence. Some possible good is unaccomplished, some desirable labor is unperformed, some means of progress isneglected, some evil seed, it may be, is sown, for which this generationmust answer to all the successions of men. But let us not yield to theprejudice, though sanctioned by custom, that learning unfits men forthe labors of life. The _schools_ may sometimes do this, but _learning_never. We cannot, however, conceal from our view the fact that thisprejudice is a great obstacle to progress, even in New England; anobstacle which may not be overcome without delay and conflict, in manystates of this Union; and especially in Great Britain is it an obstaclein the way of those who demand a system of universal education. 

In the House of Commons, Mr. Drummond opposes a national system ofeducation in this wise: "And, pray, what do you propose to rear youryouth for? Are you going to train them for statesmen? No. (A laugh. ) Thehonorable gentleman laughs at the notion, and so would I. But you aregoing to fit them to be--what? Why, cotton-spinners and pin-makers, or, if you like, blacksmiths, mere day laborers. These are the men whom youare to teach foreign languages, mathematics, and the notation of music. (Hear, hear. ) Was there ever anything more absurd? It really seems as ifGod had withdrawn common sense from this house. " Now, what does thislanguage of Mr. Drummond mean? Does he not intend to say that it isunwise to educate that class of society from which cotton-spinners, pin-makers, blacksmiths, mere day laborers, are taken? Is it not hisopinion that the business of pin-making is to be perpetuated in somefamilies and classes, and the business of statesmanship is to beperpetuated in others? And, if so, does he not believe that the bestcondition of society is that which presents divisions based upon thefactitious distinctions of birth and fortune? Most certainly thesequestions indicate his opinions, as they indicate the opinions of thosewho cheered him, and as they also indicate the opinions of a few in thiscountry, who, through ignorance, false education, prejudice, or sympathywith castes and races, fear to educate the laborer, lest he may forsakehis calling. With us these fears are infrequent, but they ought not toexist at all. The question in a public sense is not, "From what familyor class shall the pin-maker or the statesman be taken?" There is noquestion at all to be answered. Educate the whole people. Education willdevelop every variety of talent, taste, and power. These qualities, under the guidance of the necessities of life and the public judgment, will direct each man to his proper place. If the son of a cotton-spinnerbecome a statesman, it is because statesmanship needs him, and he hassome power answering to its wants. And if Mr. Drummond's son become acotton-spinner, it is because that is his right place, and the worldwill be the better and the richer that Mr. Drummond's son is acotton-spinner, and that he is a learned man too; but, if Mr. Drummond'sson occupy the place of a statesman because he is Mr. Drummond's son, though he be no statesman at all himself, then the world is all theworse for the mistake, and poor compensation is it that Mr. Drummond'sson is a learned man in something that he is never called to put inpractice. 

When it is said that the statesmen, or those engaged in the business ofgovernment, shall come from one-tenth of the population, is not thestate, according to the doctrine of chances, deprived of nine-tenths ofits governing force? And may not the same suggestion be made of everyother branch of business?

But I pass now to the last leading thought, and soon to the conclusionof my address. The great contribution of learning to the laborer is itspower, under the lead of Christianity, to break down the unnaturaldistinctions of society, and to render labor of every sort, among allclasses, acceptable and honorable. Ignorance is the degradation oflabor, and when laborers, as a class, are ignorant, their vocation isnecessarily shunned by some; and, being shunned by some, it is likely tobe despised by others. Wherever the laboring population is in acondition of positive, or, by a broad distinction, of comparativeignorance, society will always divide itself into two, and oftentimesinto three classes. We shall find the dominant class, the servientclass, and then, generally, the despised class; the dominant class, comparatively intelligent, possessing the property, administering thegovernment, giving to social life its laws, and enjoying the fruits oflabor which they do not perform; the servient class, unwittingly in astate of slavery, whether nominally bond or free, having little besidesphysical force to promote their own comfort or to contribute to thegeneral prosperity, and furnishing security in their degradation for afinal submission to whatever may be required of them; and last, adespised class, too poor to live without labor, and too proud to live bylabor, assuming a position not accorded to them, and finally yielding toa social and political ostracism even more degrading, to a sensitivemind, than the servient condition they with so much effort seek to shun. 

All this is the fruit of ignorance; all this may be removed by generallearning. If all men are learned, the work of the world will beperformed by learned men; and why, under such circumstances, should notevery vocation that is honest be equally honorable? But if this, in abroad view, seem utopian, can we not agree that learning is the onlymeans by which a poor man can escape from his poverty? And, if itfurnish certain means of escape for one man, will it not furnish equallycertain means of escape for many? And if so, is not learning a generalremedy for the inequalities among men?

EDUCATION AND CRIME. 

[Extract from the Twenty-First Annual Report of the Secretary of theMassachusetts Board of Education. ]

The public schools, in their relations to the morals of the pupils andto the morality of the community, are attracting a large share ofattention. In some sections of the country the system is boldlydenounced on account of its immoral tendencies. In states where freeschools exist there are persons who doubt their utility; andoccasionally partisan or religious leaders appear who deny the existenceof any public duty in regard to education, or who assert and maintainthe doctrine that free schools are a common danger. As the people ofthis commonwealth are not followers of these prophets of evil, norbelievers in their predictions, there is but slight reason fordiscussion among us. It is not probable that a large number of thecitizens of Massachusetts entertain doubts of the power and value of ourinstitutions of learning, of every grade, to resist evil and promotevirtue, through the influence they exert. But, as there is nothing inour free-school system that shrinks from light, or investigation even, I have selected from the annual reports everything which they containtouching the morality of the institution. In so doing, I have had twoobjects in view. First, to direct attention to the errors and wrongsthat exist; and, secondly, to state the opinion, and enforce it as I maybe able, that the admitted evils found in the schools are the evils ofdomestic, social, municipal, and general life, which are sometimeschastened, mitigated, or removed, but never produced, nor evencherished, by our system of public instruction. In the extracts from theschool committees' reports there are passages which imply some doubt ofthe moral value of the system; but it is our duty to bear in mind thatthese reports were prepared and presented for the praiseworthy purposeof arousing an interest in the removal of the evils that are pointedout. The writers are contemplating the importance of making the schoolsa better means of moral and intellectual culture; but there is no reasonto suppose that in any case a comparison is instituted, even mentally, between the state of society as it appears at present and the conditionthat would follow the abandonment of our system of public instruction. There are general complaints that the manners of children and youth havechanged within thirty or fifty years; that age and station do notcommand the respect which was formerly manifested, and that somelicense in morals has followed this license in manners. 

The change in manners cannot be denied; but the alleged change in moralsis not sustained by a great amount of positive evidence. The customs offormer generations were such that children often manifested in theirexterior deportment a deference which they did not feel, while atpresent there may be more real respect for station, and deference forage and virtue, than are exhibited in juvenile life. In thisexplanation, if it be true, there is matter for serious thought; but Ishould not deem it wise to encourage a mere outward show of the socialvirtues, which have no springs of life in the affections. 

And, notwithstanding the tone of the reports to which I have calledattention, and notwithstanding my firm conviction that many moraldefects are found in the schools, I am yet confident that their moralprogress is appreciable and considerable. 

In the first place, teachers, as a class, have a higher idea of theirprofessional duties, in respect to moral and intellectual culture. Manyof them are permanently established in their schools. They are personsof character in society, with positions to maintain, and they arecontrolled by a strong sense of professional responsibility to parentsand to the public. It has been, to some extent, the purpose and resultof Teachers' Associations, Teachers' Institutes, and Normal Schools, tocreate in the body of teachers a better opinion concerning their moralobligations in the work of education. It must also be admitted that thechanges in school government have been favorable to learning and virtue. For, while it is not assumed that all schools are, or can be, controlledby moral means only, it is incontrovertible that a government of mildmeasures is superior to one of force. This superiority is as apparent inmorals as in scholarly acquisitions. It is rare that a teacher nowboasts of his success over his pupils in physical contests; but suchclaims were common a quarter of a century ago. The change that has beenwrought is chiefly moral, and in its influence we find demonstrativeevidence of the moral superiority of the schools of the present overthose of any previous period of this century. Before we can comprehendthe moral work which the schools have done and are doing, we mustperceive and appreciate with some degree of truthfulness the changesthat have occurred in general life within a brief period of time. Theactivity of business, by which fathers have been diverted from thecustody and training of their children; the claims of fashion andsociety, which have led to some neglect of family government on thepart of mothers; the aggregation of large, populations in cities andtowns, always unfavorable to the physical and moral welfare of children;the comparative neglect of agriculture, and the consequent loss of moralstrength in the people, are all facts to be considered when we estimatethe power of the public school to resist evil and to promote good. If, in addition to these unfavorable facts and tendencies, our educationalsystem is prejudicial to good morals, we may well inquire for the humanagency powerful enough to resist the downward course of New England andAmerican civilization. To be sure, Christianity remains; but it must, tosome extent, use human institutions as means of good; and the assertionthat the schools are immoral is equivalent to a declaration that ourdivine religion is practically excluded from them. This declaration isnot in any just sense true. The duty of daily devotional exercises isalways inculcated upon teachers, and the leading truths and virtues ofChristianity are made, as far as possible, the daily guides of teachersand pupils. The tenets of particular sects are not taught; but the greattruths of Christianity, which are received by Christians generally, areaccepted and taught by a large majority of committees and teachers. Itis not claimed that the public schools are religious institutions; butthey recognize and inculcate those fundamental truths which are thebasis of individual character, and the best support of social, religious, and political life. The statement that the public schools aredemoralizing must be true, if true at all, for one of three reasons. Either because all education is demoralizing; or, secondly, because theparticular education given in the public schools is so; or, thirdly, because the public-school system is corrupting, and consequently taintsall the streams of knowledge that flow through or emanate from it. For, if the public system is unobjectionable as a system, and education isnot in itself demoralizing, then, of course, no ground remains for thecharge that I am now considering. 

I. _Is all education demoralizing?_ An affirmative answer to thisquestion implies so much that no rational man can accept it. It isequivalent to the assertion that barbarism is a better condition thancivilization, and that the progress of modern times has proceeded upon amisconception of the true ideal perfection of the human race. As no onecan be found who will admit that his happiness has been marred, hispowers limited, or his life degraded, by education, so there is noprocess of logic that can commend to the human understanding thedoctrine that bodies of men are either less happy or virtuous for theculture of the intellect. I am not aware of any human experience thatconflicts with this view; for individual cases of criminals who havebeen well educated prove nothing in themselves, but are to be consideredas facts in great classes of facts which indicate the principles andconduct of bodies of men who are subject to similar influences. In fact, the statistics to which I have had access tend to show that crimediminishes as intelligence increases. On this point the experience ofGreat Britain is probably more definite, and, of course, more valuable, than our own. The Aberdeen Feeding Schools were established in 1841, andduring the ten years succeeding the commitments to the jails of childrenunder twelve years of age were as follows:[1]

 In 1842, 30 In 1847, 27

 1843, 63 1848, 19

 1844, 41 1849, 16

 1845, 49 1850, 22

 1846, 28 1851, 8 ___ ___ 211 92

In the work of Mr. Hill it is also stated that "the number of childrenunder twelve committed for crime to the Aberdeen prisons, during thelast six years, was as follows:

 Males. Females. Total. 

 1849-50, 11 5 16

 1850-51, 14 8 22

 1851-52, 6 2 8

 1852-53, 23 1 24

 1853-54, 24 1 25

 1854-55, 47 2 49

"It will be observed that in the last three years there has been a greatincrease of boy crime, contemporaneously with an almost total absence ofgirl crime, though formerly the amount of the latter was considerable. Now, since this extraordinary difference coïncides in point of time withthe fact of full girls' schools and half empty boys' schools, theinference can hardly be avoided that the two facts bear the relation ofcause and effect, and that, so far from the late increase of youthfulcrime in Aberdeen any-wise impairing the soundness of the principle onwhich the schools are based, it is its strongest confirmation. In moralas in physical science, when the objections to a theory are, uponfurther investigation, explained by the theory itself, they become thebest evidence of its truth. Indeed, it is proved, by the experience, notonly of Aberdeen, but, as far as I have been able to ascertain, of everytown in Scotland in which industrial schools have been established, that the number of children in the schools and the number in the jailare like the two ends of a scale-beam; as the one rises the other falls, and _vice versa_. 

"The following list of imprisonments of children attending the schoolsof the Bristol Ragged School Union shows considerable progress in theright direction:

____________________________________________________________________ |1847. |1848. |1849. |1850. |1851. |1852. |1853. |1854. |1855. |_____________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____| Imprisoned, | 12 | 19 | 26 | 9 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | - |_____________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|

Imprisonments in } 66, averaging 16. 5 per year on number of 417the first four years} children. 

In subsequent five } 3, averaging 0. 6 per year on number of 728years, } children. ____ Difference, 15. 9

 16. 5 : 15. 9 :: 100 : 96. 36. 

"Thus, " says Mr. Thornton, "it appears that the diminution of theaverage annual number of children attending our schools imprisoned inthe latter period of five years, as compared with the annual average ofthe previous four years, is ninety-six per cent. --a striking fact, whichis, I think, a manifest proof of the benefit conferred on them by thereligious and secular instruction they receive in our schools, or, atthe very least, of the advantages of rescuing them from the temptationsof idleness, and from evil companionship and example. "

I also copy, from the work already referred to, an extract from a paperon the Reformatory Institutions in and near Bristol, by Mary Carpenter:"In numberless instances children may be seen growing up decently, whoowe their only training and instruction to the school. Young persons arenoticed in regular work, who, before they attended the Ragged Schools, were vagrants, or even thieves. Not unfrequently a visit is paid at theschool by a respectable young man, who proves to have been a wild andtroublesome scholar of former times. "

Mr. Hill, Recorder of Birmingham, in a charge to the grand jury, made in1839, speaking of the means of repressing crime, says: "It is toeducation, in the large and true meaning of the word, that we must alllook as the means of striking at the root of the evil. Indeed, of theclose connection between ignorance and crime the calendar which I holdin my hand furnishes a striking example. Each prisoner has been examinedas to the state of his education, and the result is set down oppositehis name. It appears, then, that of forty-three prisoners only one canread and write well. The majority can neither read nor write at all; andthe remainder, with the solitary exception which I have noted down, aresaid to read and write imperfectly; which necessarily implies that theyhave not the power of using those great elements of knowledge for anypractical object. Of forty-three prisoners, forty-two, then, aredestitute of instruction. "

These authorities are not cited because they refer to schools thatanswer in character to the public schools of Massachusetts, for thelatter are far superior in the quality of their pupils, and in theopportunities given for intellectual and moral education; but thesecases and opinions are presented for the purpose of showing what hasbeen done for the improvement of children and the repression of crimeunder the most unfavorable circumstances that exist in a civilizedcommunity. If such benign results have followed the establishment ofschools of an inferior character, is it unreasonable to claim thateducation and the processes of education, however imperfect they may be, are calculated to increase the sum of human progress, virtue, andhappiness?

II. _Is the particular education given in the public schools unfavorableto the morals of the pupils, and, consequently, to the morality of thecommunity?_ I have already presented a view of the moral and religiouseducation given in the schools, and it only remains to consider theculture that is in its leading features intellectual. It may be said, speaking generally, that education is a training and development of thefaculties, so as to make them harmonize in power, and in their relationsto each other. Among other things, the ability to read is acquired inthe public schools. In the individual, this is a power for good. Itopens to the mind and heart the teachings of the sacred Scriptures; itsecures the companionship of the great, the wise, and the good, of everyage; and it is a possession that, in all cases, must be the foundationof those scientific acquisitions, intellectual, moral, and natural, which show the beneficence and power of the Creator, and indicate thefact and the law of human responsibility. The natural and general effectof the sciences taught in the schools is an illustration of the laststatement. Moreover, the mere presence of a child, though he took nopart in the studies of the school, is to him a moral lesson. He feelsthe force of government, he acquires the habit of obedience, and, intime, he comprehends the reason of the rules that are established. Thisdiscipline is essentially moral, and furnishes some basis, thoughpartial and unsatisfactory, for the proper discharge of the duties oflife. But it is to be remembered that the power of the school is but inits beginning when the presence of a pupil is recognized. The constancyand punctuality of attendance required by all judicious parents andfaithful teachers are important moral lessons, whose influence can neverbe destroyed. The fixedness of purpose that is required, and isessential in school, remains as though it were a part of the nature ofthe child and the man. School-life strengthens habits of industry whenthey exist, and creates them when they do not. It is, indeed, the onlymeans, of universal application, that is competent to train children inhabits of industry. Private schools can never furnish this training; forlarge numbers of children, by the force of circumstances, are deprivedof the tuition of such schools. Business life cannot furnish thistraining; for the habits of the child are usually moulded, if nothardened, before he arrives at an age when he can be constantly employedin any industrial vocation. The public school is no doubt justlychargeable with neglects and omissions; but its power for good, measuredby the character of the education now furnished, is certainly verygreat. It inculcates habits of regularity, punctuality, constancy, andindustry, in the pursuits of business; through literature and thesciences in their elements, and, under some circumstances, by anadvanced course of study, it leads the pupil towards the fountain oflife and wisdom; and, by the moral and religious instruction dailygiven, some preparation is made for the duties of life and thetemptations of the world. 

III. _Is the public school system, as a system, in itself necessarilycorrupting?_ As preliminary to the answer to be given to this question, it is well to consider what the public-school system is. 

1. Every inhabitant is required to contribute to its support. 

2. It contemplates the education of every child, regardless of anydistinction of society or nature. 

3. The system is subject in many respects to the popular will; andultimately its existence and character are dependent upon the publicjudgment. 

4. In the Massachusetts schools, the daily reading of the Scriptures isrequired. 

The consideration of these topics will conclude my remarks upon thegeneral subject of the moral influence of the American system of publicinstruction. In New England it is very unusual to hear the right of thestate to provide for the support of schools by general taxation calledin question; but I am satisfied, from private conversations, and fromoccasional public statements, that there are leading minds in somesections of the country that are yet unconvinced of the moral soundnessof the basis on which a system of public instruction necessarily rests. Taxation is simply an exercise of the right of the whole to take theproperty of an individual; and this right can be exercised justly inthose cases only where the application of the property so taken is, morally speaking, to a public use. The judgment of the public determinesthe legality of the proceeding; but it is possible that in some cases apublic judgment might be secured which could not be supported by aprocess of moral reasoning. On what moral grounds, then, does the rightof taxation for educational objects rest? I answer, first, educationdiminishes crime. The evidence in support of this statement has alreadybeen presented. It is a manifest individual duty to make sacrifices forthis object; and, as every crime is an injury, not only to him who isthe subject of it, but to every member of society, the prevention ofcrime becomes a public as well as an individual duty. 

The conviction of a criminal is a public duty; and, under allgovernments of law, it is undertaken at the public charge. Offences arenot individual merely; they are against society also, inasmuch as it isthe right of society that all its members shall behave themselves well. And, if it is the right of society that its members shall behavethemselves well, is it not the duty of society to so provide for theireducation that each individual part may meet the demand which the wholebody asserts? And, further, as a majority of persons cannot individuallyprovide for their own protection, it is the duty of society, or thestate, or the government, to furnish the needed protection in the mosteconomical and effective manner possible. The state has no moral rightto jeopard property, life, and reputation, when, by a different policy, all these might be secure; nor has the state a moral right to make thesecurity furnished, whether perfect or not, unnecessarily expensive. Itis the dictate of reason and the experience of governments that the mosteffectual method of repressing crime is to diminish the number ofcriminals; and, though punitive measures may accomplish something, ourchief reliance must be upon the education and training of children andyouth. The facts drawn from the experience of England and Scotland, which have been quoted, lead to the conclusion that schools diminish thenumber of criminals, and consequently lessen the amount of crime; but Ithink it proper to add some extracts from a communication made, inAugust, 1856, by Mr. Dunne, chief constable of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, tothe Secretary of the National Reformatory Union. [2]

"I know, from my own personal knowledge and observation, that, sinceparental responsibility has been enforced in the district, under thedirection of the Secretary of State, the number of juvenile criminals inthe custody of the police has decreased one-half. I know that many ofthe parents, who were in the habit of sending their children into thestreets for the purposes of stealing, begging, and plunder, have quitediscontinued that practice, and several of the children so used, andbrought up as thieves and mendicants, are now at some of the freeschools of the town; others are at work, and thereby obtain an honestlivelihood; and, so far as I can ascertain, they seem to be thoroughlyaltered, and appear likely to become good and honest members of society. I have, for my own information, conversed with some of the boys soaltered, and, during the conversation I had with them, they declaredthat they derived the greatest happiness and satisfaction from theirchange in life. I don't at all doubt the truth of these statements, fortheir evident improvement and individual circumstances fully bear themout; and I believe them to be really serious in all they say, and trulyanxious to become honest and respectable. I attribute, in a greatmeasure, this salutary change to the effects arising in many respectsfrom the establishment of reformatory schools; but I have moreparticularly found that greater advantages have emanated from thoseinstitutions since the parents of the children confined in them havebeen made to pay contributions to their maintenance; for it appearsbeyond doubt that the effect of the latter has been to induce theparents of other young criminals to withdraw them from the streets, and, instead of using them for the purposes of crime, they seem to take aninterest in their welfare. And I know that many of them are now reallyanxious to get such employment for their children as will enable them toobtain a livelihood; and it is my opinion that the example thus set toolder and more desperate criminals, belonging in many instances to thesame family as the juvenile thief, has had the effect of reforming themalso; for many of them have left off their course of crime, and are nowliving by honest labor. The result is that serious crime hasconsiderably decreased in this district, so much so that there were onlysix cases for trial at the assizes, whereas, at the previous assizes, the average number of cases was from twenty-five to thirty, which factwas made the subject of much comment and congratulation by Mr. JusticeWilles, the presiding judge. "

These remarks relate chiefly to the reformatory schools, but we knowthat the prevention of crime by education is much easier than itsreformation by the same means. Indeed, it is the result of theexperience of Massachusetts that the necessity for reform schools has ina large degree arisen from neglect of the public schools. It is statedin the Tenth Annual Report of the Chaplain of the State Reform Schoolthat of nineteen hundred and nine boys admitted since the establishmentof the institution, thirteen hundred and thirty-four are known to havebeen truants. It is also quite probable that the number reported astruants is really less than the facts warrant. It may not be out ofplace to suggest, in this connection, that when a boy sentenced to theReform School is known to have been guilty of truancy, if the parentswere subjected to some additional burdens on that account, the cause ofeducation would be promoted, and the number of criminals in thecommunity would be diminished. From the views and facts presented, aswell as from the daily observation and experience of men, I assume thatignorance is the ally of crime, and that education is favorable tovirtue. It is also the result of experience and the dictate of reasonthat general taxation is the only means by which universal education canbe secured. All other plans and theories will prove partial in theirapplication. If, then, it is the duty of the state to protect itselfagainst crime, and of course to diminish the number of criminals; ifeducation is the most efficient means for securing these results; ifthis education must be universal in order to be thoroughly effective; ifthe state is the only agent or instrumentality of sufficient power toestablish schools and furnish education for all; and if general taxationis the only means which the state itself can command, is not everyinhabitant justly required and morally bound to contribute to thesupport of a system of public instruction?

It will not necessarily happen that public schools will furnish to everychild and youth the desired amount of education. Professional schools, classical schools, and academies of various grades, will be continued;but there is an amount of intellectual and moral training needed byevery child which can be best given in the public school. This trainingin the public schools ought to be carried much further than it usuallyis. In the city of Newburyport, as I have been informed, there are noexceptions to the custom of educating all the children of the town inthe public schools up to the moment when young men enter college. Inlarge towns and cities there is no excuse for the existence of privateschools to do the work now done in such schools as those of Newburyportand other places where equal educational privileges exist. 

The chief objection brought against the public school, touching itsmorality, is derived from the fact that children who are subject toproper moral influences at home are brought in contact with others whoare already practised in juvenile vices, if they have not been guilty ofpetty crimes. I am happy to believe that this statement is not true ofmany New England communities. The objection was considered in the lastAnnual Report, --it has been often considered elsewhere; and I do notpropose to repeat at length the views which are entertained by thefriends of public education. 

I have, however, to suggest that while this objection applies with someforce to the public school, it applies also to every other school, andthat the evil is the least dangerous when the pupil is intrusted to thecare of a qualified teacher, who is personally responsible to the publicfor his conduct, and when the child is also subject to the restraints, and influenced by the daily example and teachings, of the parents. 

Moreover, it is to be remembered that the great value of education, in amoral aspect, is the development of the power to resist temptation. Thispower is not the growth of seclusion; and while neither the teacher northe parent ought wantonly to expose the child to vicious influences, theschool may be even a better preparation for the world from the fact thattemptation has there been met, resisted, and overcome. It is also to beremembered that the judgment of parents in a matter so difficult anddelicate as a comparison between their own children and other childrenwould not always prove trustworthy nor just; and that a judgment ofparties not interested would prove eminently fruitful of dissatisfactionand bitterness. 

If all are to be educated, it only remains, then, that they be educatedtogether, subject to the general rule of society, that when a member isdangerous to the safety or peace of his associates, he is to be excludedor restrained. Nor is this necessity of association destitute of moraladvantages. If the comparatively good were separated from the relativelyvicious, it is not improbable that the latter would soon fall into astate of barbarity. It seems to be the law of the school and of theworld that the most rapid progress is made when the weight of publicsentiment is on the side of improvement and virtue. It is not necessaryfor me to remark that such a public sentiment exists in every town andschool district of the state; but who would take the responsibility inany of these communities, great or small, of separating the virtuousclasses from the dangerous classes? Parents, from the force of theiraffections, are manifestly incompetent to do this; and those who are notparents are probably equally incompetent. But, if it were honestlyaccomplished, who would be responsible for the crushing effects of themeasure upon those who were thus excluded from the presence andcompanionship of the comparatively virtuous? These, often the victims ofvicious homes, need more than others the influence and example of thegood; and it should be among the chief satisfactions of those who areable to train their own children in the ways of virtue, that thereby ahealthful influence is exerted upon the less fortunate of their race. There is also in this course a wise selfishness; for, although_children_ may be separated from each other, the circumstances ofmaturer years will often make the virtuous subject to the influence ofthe vicious. The safety of society, considered individually orcollectively, is not in the virtuous training of any part, however largethe proportion, but in the virtuous training of all. I cannot deem itwise policy, whether parental or public, that takes the child from theschool on account of the immoral associations that are ordinarily foundthere, or, on the other hand, that drives the vicious or unfortunatefrom the presence of those who are comparatively pure. When it isconsidered that the school is often the only refuge of the unhappysubject of orphanage, or the victim of evil family influences, it seemsan unnecessary cruelty to withhold the protection, encouragement, andsupport, which may be so easily and profitably furnished. It is saidthat a sparrow pursued by a hawk took refuge in the bosom of a member ofthe sovereign assembly of Athens, and that the harsh Areopagite threwthe trembling bird from him with such violence that it was killed on thespot. The assembly was filled with indignation at the cruelty of thedeed; the author of it was arraigned as an alien to that sentiment ofmercy so necessary to the administration of justice, and by theunanimous suffrages of his colleagues was degraded from the senatorialdignity which he had so much dishonored. 

It does not seem necessary to offer an argument in support of theposition that the public school is not unfavorably affected, morally, bythe fact that it is subject to the popular judgment. This judgment canbe rendered only at stated times, and under the forms and solemnities oflaw. The history of public schools would probably furnish but fewinstances of wrong in this respect. The people are usually sensitive inregard to the moral character of teachers; they contribute liberally forthe support of the schools, are anxious for their improvement, and thereis no safer depositary of a trust that is essential to a nation in whichis the hope of freedom and free institutions. 

And, last, a school cannot be truly said to be destitute of moralcharacter and influence in which the sacred Scriptures are daily read. 

The observance of this requirement is a recognition of the existence ofthe Supreme Being, of the Bible as containing a record of his willconcerning men, and of the common duty of rational creatures to live inobedience to the obligations of morality and religion. 

It has been no part of my purpose, in this discussion of the publicschool as an institution fitted to promote morality, to deny theexistence of serious defects, or to screen them from the eyes of men. The public school needs a more thorough discipline, a purer morality, aclearer conception and a more practical recognition of the truths ofChristianity. But, viewed as a human institution, it claims the generalgratitude for the good it has already accomplished. The public schoolwas established in Massachusetts that "learning might not be buried inthe graves of our forefathers, in church and commonwealth;" and, in somemeasure, at least, the early expectation thus quaintly expressed hasbeen realized. Learning has ever been cherished and honored among us. The means of education have been the possession of all; and theenjoyment of these means, often inadequate and humble, has developed ataste for learning, which has been gratified in higher institutions;and thus continually have the resources of the state been magnified, andits influence in the land has been efficient in all that concerns thewelfare of the human race on the American continent. 

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Repression of Crime. By M. D. Hill. 

[2] The Repression of Crime, pp. 358, 359. 

REFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 

[Address at the Inauguration of WILLIAM E. STARR, Superintendent of theState Reform School at Westborough. ]

Neither the invitation of the Trustees nor my own convenience willpermit a detailed examination of the topics which the occasion suggests;and it is my purpose to address myself to those who are assembled toparticipate in the exercises of the day, trusting to familiar andunobserved visits for other and better opportunities for conference withthe inmates of the institution. 

As the mariner, though cheered by genial winds and canopied by cloudlessskies, tests and marks his position and course by repeated observations, so we now desire to note the progress of this humanity-freighted vesselin its voyage over an uncertain sea, yet, as we trust, toward lands ofperpetual security and peace. All are voyagers on the sea of life. Some, with the knowledge of ancient days only, grope their way by headlands, or trust themselves occasionally to the guidance of the sun or thestars; while others, with the chart and compass of the Christian era, move confidently on their course, attracted by the Source and Centre ofall good. And it is a blessing of this state of existence, though it maysometimes seem to be a curse, that the choice between good and evil yetremains. The wisdom of a right choice is here manifested in thebenevolence of this foundation. 

The State Reform School for Boys has now enjoyed eight full years oflife and progress; and, though we cannot estimate nor measure the goodit may have induced, or the evil it may have prevented, yet enough ofits history and results is known to justify the course of its patrons, both public and private, and to warrant the ultimate realization oftheir early cherished hopes. The state is most honored in the honorawarded to its sons; and the name of LYMAN, now and evermore associatedwith a work of benevolence and reform, will always command theadmiration of the citizens of the commonwealth, and stimulate the youthof the school to acquire and practise those virtues which their generouspatron cherished in his own life and honored in others. GovernorWashburn, in the Dedication Address, said, "We commend this school, withits officers and inmates, to a generous and grateful public, with thetrust that the future lives of the young, who may be sent hither forcorrection and reform, may prove the crowning glory of an enterprise soauspiciously begun. " Since these words were uttered, and this hope, thehope of many hearts, was expressed, nearly two thousand boys, chargedwith various offences, --many of them petty, and others serious or evencriminal, --have been admitted to the school; and the chaplain, in hisreport for the year 1854, says that "the institution will beinstrumental in saving a majority of those who come under its fosteringcare. " This opinion, based, no doubt, upon the experience which thechaplain and other officers of the institution had had, is to be takenas possessing a substantial basis of truth; and it at once suggestsimportant reflections. 

Massachusetts is relieved of the presence of a thousand criminal, or, atbest, viciously disposed persons. A thousand active, capable, industrious, productive, full-grown men have been created; or, rather, athousand consumers of the wealth of others, enemies of the public orderand peace, have been transformed into intelligent supporters of sociallife, into generous, faithful guardians of public virtue andtranquillity. Nor would the influences of this degraded population, ifunreformed, have ceased with its own existence; every succeedinggeneration must have gathered somewhat of a harvest of crime and woe. Athousand boys, hardened by neglect, educated in vice, and shunned bythe virtuous, would, as men, have been efficient missionaries oflawlessness, wrong, and crime. And who shall estimate how much theirreform adds, in its results, to the wealth, the intellectual, moral, andreligious character, of the state? The criminal class is never aproducing class; and the labor of a thousand men here reclaimed, ifestimated for the period of twenty years only, is equal to the labor oftwenty thousand men for one year, which, at a hundred dollars each, yields two millions of dollars. The pecuniary advantages of this school, as of all schools, we may estimate; but there are better and higherconsiderations, in the elevated intellectual, moral, and religious lifeof the state, that are too pure, too ethereal, to be weighed in thebalance against the grosser possessions and acquisitions of society. Wethus get glimpses of the prophetic wisdom which led Mr. Lyman to say, "Ido not look on this school as an experiment; on the contrary, it strikesme that it is an institution which will produce decidedly beneficialresults, not only for the present day, but for many years to come. I donot, therefore, think that it should, even now, be treated in anyrespect in the light of an experiment, to be abandoned if notsuccessful; for, if the school is introduced to public notice on nobetter footing and with no more preparation than usually attendtrial-schemes of most kinds, the probability is that it will fail, considering the peculiar difficulties of the case. " Here is a high orderof faith in its application to human affairs; but Mr. Lyman saw, also, that the work to be performed must encounter obstacles, and that itsprogress toward a perfect result would be slow. 

These obstacles have been encountered; and yet the progress has beenmore rapid than the words of our founder imply. But are we not atliberty to forget the trials, crosses, and perplexities, of thismovement, as we behold the fruits, already maturing, of the wisdom andChristian benevolence of our honored commonwealth?

We are assembled to review the past, and to gather from it strength andcourage for the future; and we may with propriety congratulate all, whether present or absent, who have been charged with the administrationof this school, and have contributed their share, however humble, topromote these benign results. And we ought, also, to remember those, whether living or dead, whose faith and labors laid the foundation onwhich the state has built. Of the dead, I mention Lyman, Lamb, Denny, Woodward, Shaw, and Greenleaf, --all of whom, with money, counsel, orpersonal service, contributed to the plan, progress, and completion, ofthe work. 

The good that they have done is not interred with their bones; and theirexample will yet find many imitators, as men more generally and moreperfectly realize the importance of faith in childhood and youth, as theelement of a true faith in our race. If this enterprise, in the judgmentof its founder, was not an experiment ten years ago, it cannot be soregarded now; yet the public will look with anxiety, though with hope, upon every change of the officers of the institution. The trusteeshaving appointed a new superintendent, he now assumes the greatresponsibility. It may not be second to any in the state; yet a man ofenergy, who is influenced by a desire to do good, and who will notmeasure his reward by present emoluments or temporary fame, can bearsteadily and firmly the weight put upon him. The superintendent electhas been a teacher elsewhere, and he is to be a teacher here also. Hiswork will not, in all particulars, correspond with the work that he hasleft; yet the principles of government and education are in substancethe same. The head of a school always occupies a position of influence;the characters of the children and youth confided to him are in a greatdegree subject to his control. Here the teacher is neither aided norimpeded by the usual home influences. This institution is at once a homeand a school; and its head has the united power and responsibility ofthe parent and the teacher. Here are to be combined the social and moralinfluences of home, the religious influences of the Sunday-school, withthe intellectual and moral training of the public school. He who to-dayenters upon this work should have both faith and courage. He is to dealwith the unfortunate rather than with the exceptional cases of humanity;for all these are children whom the Father of the race, in hisprovidence, has confided to earthly parents to be educated for atemporal and an immortal existence. That these parents, through crime, ignorance, indolence, carelessness, or misfortune, have failed in theirwork, is no certain evidence that we are to fail in ours. May we nothope to see in this school the kindness, consideration, affection, andforethought, of the parent, without the delusion which sometimes causesthe father or mother to treat the vices of the child as virtues, to beencouraged? And may we not expect from the superintendent, to whom, practically, the discipline of the school is confided, onecharacteristic of good government, not always, it is feared, found inpunitive and reformatory institutions? I speak of the attributes ofequality, uniformity, and certainty, in the administration of the law. To be sure, a school, a prison, or a state, will suffer when its code islax; and it will also suffer when its system is oppressive orsanguinary; but these peculiarities in themselves do not so often, inany community, produce dissatisfaction, disorder, and violence, as anunequal, partial, and uncertain administration of the laws. If at timesthe laws are administered strictly according to the letter, and if atother times they are reluctantly enforced or altogether disregarded; ifit can never be known beforehand whether a violation is to be followedby the prescribed penalty--especially if this uncertainty becomessystematic, and a portion are favored, while the remainder are requiredto answer strictly for all their delinquencies; and if, above all, thesefavored ones are recognized as sentinels, or spies, or informers in theservice of the officers, --then not only will the spirit ofinsubordination manifest itself, but that spirit may ripen intoalienations, feuds, and personal enmities, dangerous to the prosperityof the institution. Here the scales of justice should be evenlybalanced, and the boy should learn, from his own daily experience, tomeasure equal and exact justice unto others. I do not speak of systemsof government: they are essential, no doubt; but they are not to beregarded as of the first importance in institutions for punishment orreformation. Establish as wise a system as you can; but never trust tothat alone. Administer the system that you have with all the equality, uniformity, and certainty, that you can command. As a general truth, itmay be said that the law is respected when these qualities are exhibitedin its administration; and, when these qualities are wanting, the spiritof obedience is driven from the hearts and minds of the people. 

But we are not to rely altogether, nor even chiefly, upon the visibleweapons of authority. Especially must the mind and heart of childhoodand youth be approached and quickened and strengthened by judiciousappeals to the sentiments of veneration and love, and to the principlesof the Christian faith. In this institution, one serious obstacle ispresent; yet it may be overcome by energy, industry, and a spirit ofbenevolence. I speak of the large number of inmates to be superintendedby one person. Men act in masses for the removal of general evils; butthe reformation of children must be individual, and to a great extentdependent upon the agency, or at least upon the coöperation, of thesubjects of it. It is not easy for the superintendent to make himselfacquainted with the persons and familiar with the lives of six hundredboys; yet this knowledge is quite essential to the exercise of asalutary influence over them. He may be aided by the subordinateofficers of the institution; and that aid, under any circumstances, hewill need: but, after all, his own influence and power for good will bemeasured by the extent of his personal acquaintance with the inmates asindividuals. First, then, government is essential to this school; not areign of terror, but a government whose majesty, power, equality, certainty, uniformity, and consequent justice, shall be experienced byall alike; and, being experienced by all alike, will be respected, reverenced, and obeyed. 

And next the social, intellectual, and moral influences of the schooland the home should be combined and mingled, or else the visible formsof government become a skeleton, merely indicating the figure, structure, and outline, of the perfect body, but destitute of the vitalprinciple which alone could render it of any value to itself or to theworld. 

This institution is not an end, but a means. The home itself is only apreparatory school for life. This is a substitute for the home, but isnot, and never can be, its equal. It therefore follows that a boy shouldbe removed whenever a home can be secured, especially if his reformationhas been previously so far accomplished as to render the completion ofthe work probable. 

A great trust has been confided to the officers of the Reform School;but the power to do good is usually proportionate to the responsibilityimposed upon the laborer. In this view, much will be expected; but theexpectations formed ought not to relate so much to results as to thewisdom and humanity with which the operations are conducted. Massachusetts is charged with the support of a great number ofcharitable and reformatory institutions. Their necessity springs fromthe defects of social life; therefore their existence is a comparativerather than a positive good; and he is the truest friend of the race whodoes most to remove the causes of poverty, ignorance, insanity, mentaland physical weakness, moral waywardness, and crime. 

THE CARE AND REFORMATION OF THE NEGLECTED AND EXPOSED CLASSES OFCHILDREN. 

[An Address delivered at the opening of the State Industrial School forGirls, at Lancaster, Massachusetts. ]

In man's limited view, the moral world presents a sad contrast to thenatural. The natural world is harmonious in all its parts; but the moralworld is the theatre of disturbing and conflicting forces, whose lawsthe finite mind cannot comprehend. The majesty and uniformity of theplanetary revolutions, which bring day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, know no change. Worlds and systems of worlds areguided by a law of the Infinite Mind; and so, through unnumbered yearsand myriads of years, birth and death, creation and decay, decrees whosefixedness enables finite minds to predict the future, and rules whoseelasticity is seen in a never-ending variety of nature, all alike provethat the sin of disobedience is upon man alone. 

But, if man only, of all the varied creations of earth, may fall fromhis high estate, so to him only is given the power to rise again, andfeebly, yet with faith, advance towards the Divine Excellence. This, then, is the great thought of the occasion, to be accepted by the heartsand illustrated in the lives of all. The fallen may be raised up, theexposed may be shielded, the wanderers may be called home, or else thishouse is built upon the sand, and doomed to fall when the rains shalldescend, the floods come, and the winds blow. The returning autumn, withits harvest of sustenance and wealth, bids us contemplate again themystery and harmony of the natural world. The tree and the herb produceseed, and the seed again produces the tree and the herb, each after itskind. There is a continued production and reproduction; but ofresponsibility there is none. As there is no intelligent violation oflaw, there is no accountability. Man, however, is an intelligent, dependent, fallible, and, of course, responsible being. He isresponsible for himself, responsible in some degree for his fellow-man. There is not a chapter in the history of the human race, nor a day ofits experience, which does not show that the individual members aredependent upon, and responsible to, each other. This great fact, of sixthousand years' duration, at once presents to us the necessity forgovernment, and defines the limits of its powers and duties. Government, then, is a union of all for the protection and welfare of each. Thisdefinition presents, in its principles and statement, the highest formof human government, --a form not yet perfectly realized on earth. Itsets forth rather what government ought to be, than what it has been oris. Too often historical governments, and living governments even, maybe defined as a union of a few for their benefit, and for the oppressionof many. The reason of man has not often been consulted in theirformation, and the interests and principles of the masses have usuallybeen disregarded in their administration. 

A true government is at once representative, patriarchal, and paternal. In the path of duty for this day and this occasion, we shall considerthe last-named quality only, --governments should be paternal. Thepaternal government is devoted to the elevation and improvement of itsmembers, with no ulterior motive except the necessary results ofinternal purity and strength. Every government is, in some degree, nodoubt, paternal. Nor are those governments to be regarded as eminentlyso, where the people are most controlled in their private, personalaffairs. These are mere despotisms; and despotism is not a just nornecessary element of the paternal relation. That government is mosttruly paternal which does most to enable its citizens or subjects toregulate their own conduct, and determine their relations to others. Inthe midst of general darkness, the paternal element of government hasbeen a light to the human race. It modified the patriarchal slavery ofthe Hebrews, relieved the iron rule of Sparta, made European feudalismthe hope of civilization in the Dark Ages, and the basis of its comingglories in the near future; and it now leads men to look with tolerationupon the despotism of Russia, and with kindness upon the simplicity andarrogance of the Celestial Empire. 

We complain, justly enough, that the world is governed too much; andyet, in a great degree, we neglect the means by which the properrelations of society could be preserved, and the world be governed less. In what works are the so-called Christian governments principallyengaged? Are they not seeking, by artifice, diplomacy, and war, toextend national boundaries, preserve national honor, or enforce nicedistinctions against the timid and weak? Yet it is plain that a nationis powerful according to the character of the living elements of whichit is composed. If it is disorganized morally, uncultivated inintellect, ignorant, indolent, or wasteful in its labor, its claims togreatness are destitute of solid foundation, and it must finally yieldto those that have sought and gained power by the elevation of theindividual as the element of the nation. 

That nation, then, is wise, and destined to become truly great, whichcultivates the best elements of individual life and character. It is notenough to read the parable of the lost sheep, and of the ninety and ninethat went not astray, and then say, "Even so, it is not the will of yourFather which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish, "while the means of salvation, as regards the life of this world merely, are very generally neglected. Such neglect is followed by error andcrime; and error and crime are followed by judgment not always temperedwith mercy. 

While human governments debate questions of war and peace, of trade andrevenue, of annexations with ceremony, and appropriations of territorywithout ceremony, who shall answer to the Governor and Judge of all forthe neglect, indifference, and oppression, which beget and foster thedelinquencies of childhood, and harden the criminals of adult life?

And who shall answer for those distinctions of caste and systems oflabor which so degrade and famish masses of human beings, that thedivine miracle of the feeding of the five thousand must be multipliedmany times over before the truths of nature or revelation can bereceived into teachable minds or susceptible hearts? And who shallanswer for the hereditary poverty, ignorance and crime, whichconstitute a marked feature of English life, and are distinctly visibleupon the face of American civilization? These questions may point withsufficient distinctness to the sources of the evils enumerated; but weare not to assume that mere human governments can furnish an adequateand complete remedy. Yet this admitted inability to do everything is noexcuse for neglecting those things which are plainly within their power. Taking upon themselves the parental character, forgetting that they havewrongs to avenge, and seeking reformation through kindness, criminalsand the causes of crime will diminish, if they do not disappear. This isthe responsibility of the nations, and the claim now made upon them. Individual civilization and refinement have always been in advance ofnational; and national character is the mirrored image of the individualcharacters, not excepting the humblest, of which the nation is composed. Each foot of the ocean's surface has, in its fluidity or density orposition, something of the quality or power of every drop of water whichrests or moves in the depths of the sea. What is called nationalcharacter is the face of the great society beneath; and, as that societyin its elements is elevated or debased, so will the national characterrise or fall in the estimation of all just men, and upon the page ofimpartial history. Government, which is the organized expression of thewill of society, should represent the best elements of which society iscomposed; and it ought, therefore, to combat error and wrong, and seekto inaugurate labor, justice, and truth, as the elements of stability, growth, and power. It must accept as its principles of action the bestrules of conduct in individuals. The man who avenges his personal wrongsby personal attacks or vindictive retaliation, must sacrifice in somemeasure the sympathy of the wise, the humane, and the good. So thenation which avenges real or fancied wrongs crushes out the elements ofhumanity and a higher life, which, properly cultivated, might lead anerring mortal to virtue and peace. The proper object of punishment isnot vengeance, but the public safety and the reformation of thecriminal. Indeed, we may say that the sole object of punishment is thereformation of the criminal; for there can be no safety to the publicwhile the criminal is unreformed. The punishment of the prison must, from its nature, be temporary; perpetual confinement can be meted out toa few great crimes only. If, then, the result of punishment bevengeance, and not reformation, the last state of society is worse thanits first. The prison must stand a sad monument of the want of truepaternal government in the family and the state; but, when it becomesthe receptacle merely of the criminal, and all ideas of reformation arebanished from the hearts of convicts and the minds of keepers, itsinfluence is evil, and only evil continually. 

Vice, driven from the presence of virtue, with no hope of reformation orof restoration to society, begets vice, and becomes daily more and moreloathsome. Misery is so universal that some share falls to the lot ofall; but that misery whose depths cannot be sounded, whose heightscannot be scaled, is the fortune of the prison convict only, who has nohope of reformation to virtue or of restoration to the world. His is theonly misery that is unrelieved; his is the only burden that is too greatto be borne. To him the foliage of the tree, the murmur of the brook, the mirror of the quiet lake, or the thunder of the heaving ocean, wouldbe equally acceptable. His separation from nature is no less burdensomethan his separation from man. The heart sinks, the spirit turns with aconsuming fire upon itself, the soul is in despair; the mind is firstnerved and desperate, then wandering and savage, then idiotic, andfinally goes out in death. Governments cannot often afford to protectthemselves, or to avenge themselves, at such a cost. There may be greatcrimes on which such awful penalties should be visited; but, for thehonor of the race, let them be few. 

We may err in our ideas of the true relations of the prison to theprisoner. We call a prison good or bad when we see its walls, cells, workshops, its means of security, and points of observation. These arevery well. They are something; but they are not all. We might so judge ahospital for the sick; and we did once so judge an asylum for theinsane. 

But what to the sick man are walls of wood, brick, granite, or marble?What are towers and turrets, what are wards, halls, and verandas, ifwithal he is not cheered and sustained by the sympathizing heart andhelping hand? And similar preparations furnish for the insane personalsecurity and physical comfort; but can they

 "Minister to a mind diseased; Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; Raze out the written troubles of the brain?"

And it may be that the old almshouse at Philadelphia, which was nearlydestitute of material aids, and had only superintendent, matrons, andassistants, was, all in all, the best insane asylum in America. 

We cannot neglect the claims of security, discipline, and labor, in theerection of jails and prisons; but to acknowledge these merely willnever produce the proper fruit of punishment--reformation. Indeed, walls of stone, gates of iron, bolts, locks, and armed sentinels, thoughessential to security, without which there could be neither punishmentnor reformation, are in themselves barriers rather than helps to moralprogress. Standing outside, we cannot say what should be done either inthe insane hospital or the prison; but we can deduce from the experienceof modern times a safe rule for general conduct. In the insane hospitalthe patient is to be treated as though he were sane; and in the jail theprisoner is to be treated, nearly as may be, as though he were virtuous. This rule, especially as much of it as applies to the prisoner, may berecklessness to some, to others folly, to others sin. 

"The court awards it, and the law doth give it, " is no doubt the essenceand strength of governmental justice in the sentence decreed; but itwould be a sad calamity if there were no escape from its literalfulfilment. And let no one borrow the words of Portia to the Jew, andsay to the state, "Nor cut thou less nor more, But just a pound of flesh. "

As the criminal staggers beneath the accumulated weight of his sin andits penalty, he should feel that the state is not only just in thelanguage of its law, but merciful in its administration; that thegovernment is, in truth, paternal. This feeling inspires confidence andhope; and without these there can be no reformation. And, following thisthought, we are led to say, it is a sad and mischievous public delusionthat the pardoning power is useless or pernicious. It is a _delusion_;for it is the only means by which the state mingles mercy with itsjustice, --the means by which the better sentiments of the prison aremarshalled in favor of order, of law, of progress. It is a _publicdelusion_; for it has infected not only the masses of society, who knowlittle of what is going on in courts and prisons, but its influence isobserved upon the bench and in the bar, especially among those who areaccustomed to prosecute and try criminals. This is not strange, norshall it be a subject of complaint; but we must not always look upon theprisoner as a criminal, and continually disregard his claims as a man. It is not often easy, nor always possible, to make the properdistinction between the _character_ and _condition_ of the prisoner. Butthe prison, strange as it may seem, follows the general law of life. Ithas its public sentiment, its classes, its leading minds, as well as theuniversity or the state; it has its men of mark, either good or bad, aswell as congress or parliament. As the family, the church, or theschool, is the reflection of the best face of society, so the prison isthe reflection of the worst face of society. But it nevertheless issociety, and follows its laws with as much fidelity as the world atlarge. 

It is said that Abbé Fissiaux, the head of the colony of Marseilles, when visiting Mettray, a kind of reform school, at which boys undersixteen years of age, who have committed offences without discernment, are sent, asked the colonists to point out to him the three best boys. The looks of the whole body immediately designated three young personswhose conduct had been irreproachable to an exceptional degree. He thenapplied a more delicate test. "Point out to me, " said he, "the worstboy. " All the children remained motionless, and made no sign; but onelittle urchin came forward, with a pitiful air, and said, in a very lowtone, "_It is me. _" Such were the public sentiment and sense of honor, even in a reform school. This frankness in the lad was followed byreformation; and he became in after years a good soldier, --the lifeanticipated for many members of the institution. 

The pardoning power is not needed in reform and industrial schools, where the managers have discretionary authority; but it is quiteessential to the discipline of the prison to let the light of hope intothe prisoner's heart. Not that all are to enjoy the benefits ofexecutive clemency, --by no means: only the most worthy and promisingare to be thus favored. But, for many years, the Massachusetts prisonhas been improved and elevated in its tone and sentiment above what itwould have been; while, as it is believed, over ninety per cent. Of theconvicts thus discharged have conducted themselves well. If theprisoner's conduct has not been, upon the whole, reasonably good, andfor a long time irreproachable, he has no chance for clemency; and, whatever may be his conduct, and whatever may be the hopes inspired, heshould not be allowed to pass without the prison walls until a friend, labor, and a home, are secured for him. And the exercise of thepardoning power, if it anticipate the expiration of the legal sentencebut a month, a week, or a day even, may change the whole subsequentlife. Men, criminals, convicts, are not insensible to kindness; and whenthe government shortens the legal sentence, which is usually theirmeasure of justice, they feel an additional obligation to so behave asto bring no discredit upon a power which has been a source ofinestimable joy to them. And prisoners thus discharged have often goneforth with a feeling that the hopes of many whom they had left behindwere centred in them. 

Mr. Charles Forster, of Charlestown, says, in a letter to me: "I havebeen connected with the Massachusetts State Prison for a period ofthirty-eight years, and have always felt a strong interest in theimprovement, welfare, and happiness, of the unfortunate men confinedwithin its walls. I am conversant with many touching cases of deep andheartfelt gratitude for kindly acts and sympathy bestowed upon them, both during and subsequent to their imprisonment. " And the samegentleman says further, "I think that the proportion of personsdischarged from prison by executive clemency, who have subsequently beenconvicted of penal offences, is very small indeed. " To some, whoseimaginations have pictured a broad waste or deep gulf between themselvesand the prisoner class, these may seem strange words; but there is nomystery in this language to those who have listened to individual casesof crime and punishment. Men are tried and convicted of crimes accordingto rules and definitions which are necessarily arbitrary and technical;but the moral character of criminals is not very well defined by therules and definitions which have been applied to their respective cases. Our prisons contain men who are great and professional criminals, --menwho advisedly follow a life of crime themselves, and deliberatelyeducate generation after generation to a career of infamy and vice. As ageneral thing, mercy to such men would be unpardonable folly. Of them Ido not now speak. But there is another class, who are involved in guiltand its punishment through the defects of early education, themisfortune of orphanage, accident, sudden temptation, or the influenceof evil companionship in youth. 

The field from which this class is gathered is an extensive one, and itsouter limits are near to every hearthstone. To all these, prison life, unless it is relieved by a hope of restoration to the world at the handof mercy, is the school of vice, and a certain preparation for a careerof crime. As a matter of fact, this class does furnish recruits tosupply the places of the hardened villains who annually die, orpermanently forsake the abodes of civilized men. What hope can there befor a young man who remains in prison until the last day of his sentenceis measured by the sun in his course, and then passes into the world, with the mark of disgrace and the mantle of shame upon him, to thesociety of the companions by whose influence he first fell? For such aone there can be no hope. And be it always remembered that there arethose without the prison walls, as well as many within, who resist everyeffort to bring the wanderers back to obedience and right. I was presentat the prison in Charlestown when the model of a bank-lock was takenfrom a young man whose term had nearly expired. The model was cut inwood, after a plan drawn upon sand-paper by an experienced criminal, then recently convicted. This old offender was so familiar with thelock, that he was able to reproduce all its parts from memory alone. This fact shows the influence that may be exerted, even in prison, uponthe characters of the young and less vicious. Now, can any doubt thatthese classes, as classes, ought to be separated? Nor let the questionbe met by the old statement, that all communication between prisonersshould be cut off. Humanity cannot defend, as a permanent system, theplan which shuts up the criminal, unless he is a murderer, from thelight of the human countenance. Such penalties foster crimes, whoseroots take hold of the state itself. 

The result of the exercise of the pardoning power is believed to havebeen, upon the whole, satisfactory. This is the concurrent testimony ofofficers and others whose opinions are entitled to weight. Permit thestatement of a single case, to which many similar ones might be added. In a remote state of the West there is a respectable and successfulfarmer, who was once sentenced to the penitentiary for life. His crimewas committed in a moment of desperation, produced by the contrastbetween a state of abject poverty in a strange land, at the age oftwenty-three, and the recollection of childhood and youth passed beneaththe parental roof, surrounded by the comforts and conveniences of thewell-educated and well-conditioned classes of English society. This, itis true, was a peculiar case. It was marked in the circumstances andenormity of the crime, and marked in the subsequent good conduct of theprisoner. But can any one object, that, after ten years' imprisonment, this man was allowed to try his fortunes once more among his fellow-men?Are there those who would have had no faith in his uninterrupted goodconduct; in the abundant evidence of complete reformation; in the factthat, in prison and poverty and disgrace, he had allied to him friendsof name and fortune and Christian virtues, who were ready to aid him inhis good resolutions? If any such there be, let them visit the solitarycell of the despairing convict, whose crime is so great that executiveclemency fears to approach it. Crime and despair have made the featuresappalling; all the worst passions of our nature riot together in thetemple made for the living God; and the death of the body is almostcertainly to be preceded by madness, insanity, and idiocy of the mind. Or, if any think that this person escaped with too light an expiationfor so great a crime, let them recall the incident of the youth who wasquestioned because he looked with fond affection into the babbling faceof the running brook, and, apologizing, as it were, in reply said, "O, yes, it is very beautiful, and especially to me, who have seen no waterfor four years, beside what I have had to drink!"

Nor is it assumed, in all that is said upon this subject, that the lawsare severe, or that the judicial administration of them is notcharacterized by justice and mercy. In the ordinary course of affairs, the pardoning power is not resorted to for the correction of any erroror injustice of the courts; but it is the means by which the statetempers its justice with mercy; and, if the penalties for crime wereless than they are, the necessity for the exercise of this power wouldstill remain. It assumes that the object of the penal law isreformation; and if this object, in some cases, can be attained by theexercise of the pardoning power, while the rigid execution of thesentence would leave the criminal, as it usually will, still hardenedand unrepenting, is it not wise for the state to benefit itself, andsave the prisoner, by opening the prison-doors, and inviting the convictto a life of industry and virtue? And let it never be forgotten, thoughit is the lowest view which can be taken of crime and prisons, that thecriminal class is the most expensive class of society. In general, it isa non-producing class, and, whether in prison or out, is a heavy burdenupon the public. The mere interest of the money now expended in prisonsof approved structure is, for each cell, equal annually to the netincome of a laboring man; and professional thieves, when at large, oftengather by their art, and expend in profligacy, many thousand dollars ayear. And here we see how much wiser it is, in an economical point ofview, to save the child, or reform the man, than to allow the adultcriminal to go at large, or provide for his safe-keeping at the expenseof the state. 

Under the influence of the pardoning power, wisely executed, thecommonwealth becomes a family, whose law is the law of kindness. It isthe paternal element of government applied to a class of people who, byevery process of reasoning, would be found least susceptible to itsinfluence. It is the great power of the state, both in the wisdomrequired for its judicious exercise, and in the beneficial results towhich it may lead. Men may desire office for its emoluments in money orfame; they may seek it in a spirit of rivalry, or for personal pride, orfor the opportunity it brings to reward friends and punish enemies; butall these are poor and paltry compared with the divine privilege, exercised always in reference to the public welfare, of elevating theprisoner to the companionship of men, and cheering him with words ofencouragement on his entrance anew to the duties of life. 

Yet think not that the prison is a reformatory institution: far from it. If the prison should be left to the influence of legitimate prisondiscipline merely, it is doubtful whether the sum of improvement wouldequal the total of degradation. This may be said of the best prisons ofAmerica, of New England. The prison usually contains every class, fromthe hardened convict, incarcerated for house-breaking, robbery, ormurder, to the youth who expiates his first offence, committed under theinfluence of evil companions, or sudden temptation. The contact of thesetwo persons must be injurious to one of them, without in any degreeimproving the other. Therefore the prison, considered without referenceto the elevating influence of the pardoning power, has but littleability to reform the bad, and yet possesses a sad tendency to debasethe comparatively good. 

We miss, too, in the prison, another essential element of a reformatoryinstitution. Reformation in individual cases may take place under themost adverse circumstances; but an institution cannot be calledreformatory unless its prevailing moral sentiment is actively, vigorously, and always, on the side of progress and virtue. This moralinfluence must proceed from the officers of the institution; but itshould be increased and strengthened by the sympathy and support of theinmates. This can hardly be expected of the prison. The number of adultpersons experienced in crime and hardened by its penalties is usually solarge, that the moral sentiment of the officers, and the weakresolutions of the small class of prisoners, who, under favorablecircumstances, might be saved, are insufficient to give a healthy toneto the whole institution. The prison is a battle-field of vice andvirtue, with the advantage of position and numbers on the side of vice. Indeed, there can hardly be a worse place for the young or theinexperienced in crime. This is the testimony of reason and of allexperience; yet the public mind is slow to accept the remedy for theevil. It is a privilege to believe that the worst scenes of prison lifeare not found in the United States. Consider this case, reported in anEnglish journal, _The Ragged-School Magazine_:

"D. F. , aged about fourteen. Mother dead several years; father adrunkard, and deserted him about three years ago. Has since lived as hebest could, --sometimes going errands, sometimes begging and thieving. Slept in lodging-houses when he had money; but very often walked thestreets at night, or lay under arches or door-steps. Has only onebrother; he lives by thieving. Does not know where he is; has no otherfriend that he knows; never learnt to read; was badly off; picked ahandkerchief out of a gentleman's pocket, and was caught by a policeman;sent to Giltspur-street Prison; was fed on bread and water; instructedevery day by chaplain and schoolmaster; much impressed with what thechaplain said; felt anxious to do better; behaved well in prison; _waswell flogged the morning he left; back bruised, but not quite bleeding_;was then turned into the street, ragged, barefooted, friendless, homeless, penniless; walked about the streets till afternoon, when hereceived a penny from a gentleman to buy a loaf; met, next day, someexpert thieves in the Minories; went along with them, and continues in acourse of vagrancy and crime. "

And what else could have been expected? The government, having sowntares, had no right to gather wheat. Yet, had this boy been providedwith a home, either in a family or a reform school, with sufficientlabor, and proper moral and intellectual culture, he might have beensaved. Of the three thousand persons annually in prison at Newgate, four hundred are less than sixteen years of age; and twenty thousandchildren and youth under seventeen years of age yearly pass through theprisons of England. "Many of the juvenile prisoners, " it is said, "havebeen frequently in prison, and are very hardened. Some, from nine toeleven, have been in prison repeatedly, and have very little fear ofit. "

The officers of the Liverpool Borough Jail are united in the opinionthat, when a boy comes once, he is almost certain to come again andagain, until he is transported. And, of every one hundred young personsdischarged from the principal prisons of Paris, seventy-five are in thecustody of the law within the next three months. A professed thief saidto the Rev. Mr. Clay, of England, "I am convinced of this, having toobitterly experienced it, that communication in a prison has broughtthousands to ruin. I speak not of boys only, but of men and women also. "And Mr. Hill, Recorder of Birmingham, says of the sentences imposed inhis court, "We are compelled to carry into operation an ignorant andvengeful system, which augments to a fearful extent the very evils itwas framed to correct. " A few years ago, there was a lad in a NewEngland prison whose experience is a pertinent illustration of the evilwe are now considering. His father, a resident of a city, died whilethe boy was in infancy. He, however, soon passed beyond the control ofhis mother, and at an early age was selected by a brace of thieves, whopetted, caressed, and humored him, until he was completely subject totheir will. He was then made useful to them in their profession; but atlast they were all arrested while engaged in robbing a store, --the boybeing within the building, and the men stationed as sentinels without. In this case, the discretion of the court, which distinguished in thesentence between the hardened villains and the youth, was inadequate tothe emergency. The child, unfit for the prison, and sure to becontaminated by it, ought to have been sent to a house of reformation, areform school, or, perhaps better than either, to the custody of awell-regulated, industrious family. Now, in such cases, the distinctionwhich the law, judicially administered, does not make, and cannot make, must be made by the executive in the wise exercise of the pardoningpower. But this power, in the nature of things, has its limits; and onone side it is limited to those who have been convicted of crime. 

At this point, we may see how faulty, and yet how constantly improving, has been the administration of the criminal law. First, we have theprison without the pardoning power, except in cases ofmal-administration of the law, --a receptacle of the bad and good, wherethe former are not improved, and the latter are hurried rapidly on inthe path of degradation and crime. Then we have the prison under theinfluence of the pardoning power, more or less wisely administered, but, in its best form, able only to arrest and counteract partially thetendencies to evil. Next, from the imperfections of this system anadvancing civilization has evoked the Reform School, which gathers inthe young criminals and viciously inclined youth, and prepares them, bylabor, and culture of the mind and heart, to resist the temptations oflife. But this institution seems to wait, though it may not always inreality do so, until the candidate is actually a criminal. 

Hence the necessity which calls us to-day to consider the means adoptedelsewhere, and the means now to be employed here, to save the young andexposed from the dangers which surround them. 

Passing, then, in review, ladies and gentlemen, the thoughts which havebeen presented, I deduce from them for your assent and support, if so itplease you, the following propositions as the basis of what I have yetto say:

I. Government, in the prevention and punishment of crime, should bepaternal. 

II. The object of punishment should be reformation, and not revenge. 

III. The law of reformation in the state, as in the family, is the lawof kindness. 

IV. As criminals vary in age and in experience as criminals, so shouldtheir treatment vary. 

V. Prisons and jails are not, in their foundation and management, reformatory institutions, and only become so through influences notnecessarily nor ordinarily acting upon them. 

VI. As prisons and jails deter from crime through fear only, exert verylittle moral influence upon the youth of either sex, and fail in manyrespects and in a majority of cases as reformatory institutions, weought to avail ourselves of any new agency which promises success. 

Influenced, as we may reasonably suppose, by these or kindredsentiments, and aided by the noblest exhibitions of private benevolence, the state has here founded a school for the prevention of crime. As wehave everywhere among us schools whose _leading_ object is thedevelopment of the intellect, so we now dedicate a school whose_leading_ object is the development of the affections as the basis ofthe cardinal virtues of life. 

The design of this institution is so well expressed by the trustees, that it is a favor to us all for me to read the first chapter of theby-laws, which, by the consent of the Governor and Council, have beenestablished:

"The intention of the state government, and of the benevolentindividuals who have contributed to the establishment of thisinstitution, is to secure a _home_ and a _school_ for such girls as maybe presented to the magistrates of the state, appointed for thatpurpose, as vagrants, perversely obstinate, deprived of the control andculture of their natural guardians, or guilty of petty offences, andexposed to a life of crime and wretchedness. 

"For such young persons it is proposed to provide, not a prison fortheir restraint and correction, but a family school, where, under thefirm but kind discipline of a judicious home, they shall be carefullyinstructed in all the branches of a good education; their moralaffections be developed and cultivated by the example and affectionatecare of one who shall hold the relation of a mother to them; beinstructed in useful and appropriate forms of female industry; and, inshort, be fitted to become virtuous and happy members of society, and totake respectable positions in such relations in life as Providence shallhereafter mark out for them. 

"It is to be distinctly understood that the institution is not to beconsidered a _place of punishment_, or its subjects as criminals. It isto be an inviting refuge, into which the exposed may be gathered to besaved from a course which would inevitably end in penal confinement, irretrievable ruin, or hopeless degradation. 

"The inmates are to be considered hopeful and promising subjects ofappropriate culture, and to be instructed and watched over with the careand kindness which their peculiar exposures demand, and with theconfidence which youth should ever inspire. 

"The restraint and the discipline which will be necessary are to be suchas would be appropriate in a Christian family or in a smallboarding-school; and the 'law of kindness' should be written upon theheart of every officer of the institution. The chief end to be obtained, in all the culture and discipline, is the proper development of thefaculties and moral affections of the inmates, however they may havebeen heretofore neglected or perverted; and to teach them the art, andaid them in securing the power, of self-government. "

Under the influence of these sentiments, we pass, if possible, in thework of reformation, from the rigor of the prison to the innocentexcitement and rivalry of the school, the comfort, confidence and joysof home. This institution assumes that crime, to some extent at least, is social, local, or hereditary, in its origin; that the career ofhardened criminals often takes its rise in poverty, idleness, ignorance, orphanage, desertion, or intemperance of parents, evil example, or theindifference, scorn and neglect of society. It assumes, also, that thereis a period of life--childhood and youth--when these, the firstindications of moral death, may be eradicated, or their influence forevil controlled. In this land of education, of liberty, of law, of laborand religion, we may not easily imagine how universal the enumeratedevils are in many portions of Europe. The existence of these evils is insome degree owing to institutions which favor a few, and oppress themasses; but it is also in a measure due to the fact that Europe is bothold and multitudinous. America, though still young, is even nowmultitudinous. Hence, both here and there, crime is social and local. The truth of this statement is proportionate to the force of the causesin the respective countries. 

We are assembled upon a sloping hillside, over-looking a quiet countryvillage. Happy homes are embowered in living groves, whose summerfoliage is emblematical of innocence, progress, and peace. We have herea social life, with natural impulses, cultivated worldly interests, moral and religious sentiments, all on the side of virtue. Crime hereis not social. If it appear at all, it is segregated; and, as theburning taper expires when placed at the centre of the spirit lamp'scoiling sheet of flame, so vice and crime cannot thrive in the genialembrace of virtue. 

Circumstances are here unfavorable to crime; it is never social; butsometimes, though not often, it is hereditary. A family for manygenerations seems to have a criminal tendency. Perhaps the members arenot in any generation guilty of great crimes, but often of lesser ones;and are, moreover, in the daily practice of vices that give rise tosuspicion, neglect, and reproach. Here together are associated, and madehereditary, poverty, ignorance, idleness, beggary, and vagrancy. Surelythese instances are not common, probably not so common as they were inthe last generation. But how is the boy or girl of such a family to riseabove these circumstances, and throw off these weights? Occasionally oneof great energy of character may do so; but, if the children of morefortunate classes can scarcely escape the influence of temporary evilexample, how shall they who are born to a heritage of poverty, ignorance, and ever-present evil counsel and conduct under the guise ofparental authority, pass to the position of intelligent, industrious, respectable members of society? Some external influence must beapplied; by some means from without, the spell must be broken; thefatal succession of vicious homes must be interrupted. The family hashere failed to discharge its duty to itself and to the state; and shallnot the state do its duty to itself, by assuming the paternal relationunder the guidance of that law of kindness, which we have seen effectualto control the insane, and melt the hardened criminal? But in cities wefind vice, not only hereditary in families, but local and social; sothat streets and squares are given up, as it were, to the idle andvicious, whose numbers and influence produce and perpetuate a publicsentiment in support of their daily practices. This phase of life is notdue to the fact that cities are wealthy, or that they are engaged inmanufactures or commerce; but to the single fact that they aremultitudinous, and their inhabitants are, therefore, in daily contactwith each other, while, in the country, individuals and families arecomparatively isolated. Yet some may very well doubt whether such aninstitution as this, with all the benign influences of home which wehope to see centred and diffusive here, will save a child of either sex, whose first years shall have been so unfavorable to a life of virtue. 

The answer is plain: as in other reformatory institutions, there will besome successes and some failures. The failures will be reckoned as theywere; the successes will be a clear gain. 

But investigation and trial will show a natural aptitude or instinct inchildren that will aid in their improvement and reformation. There hasbeen in one of our public schools a lad, who, at the age of fourteenyears, could not recall distinctly the circumstances of his lifeprevious to the time when he was a newsboy in the city of New York. Hewas ignorant of father, mother, kindred, family name, and nation. At anearly age, he travelled through the middle, southern and south-westernstates, engaged in selling papers and trash literature; and, for a time, he was employed by a showman to stand outside the tent and describe andexaggerate the attractions within. When he was in his fourteenth year, he accepted the offer of a permanent home; his chief object being, as hesaid, to obtain an education. "I have found, " said he, "that a mancannot do much in this country unless he has some learning. " This truth, simple, and resting upon a low view of education, may yet be of infinitevalue if accepted by those who, even among us, are advancing to adultlife without the preparation which our common schools are well fitted tofurnish. And the case of this lad may be yet further useful by showinghow compensation is provided for evils and neglects in mental and moralrelations, as well as in the physical and natural world. Though ignorantof books, he was thoroughly and extensively acquainted with things, andconsequently made rapid progress in the knowledge of signs; for theywere immediately applied, and of course remembered. In a few months, hetook a respectable position among lads of his age. The world had donefor this boy what good schools do not always accomplish, --made himfamiliar with things before he was troubled with the signs which standfor them. There is an ignorance in manhood; an ignorance under the showof profound learning; an ignorance for which schools, academies andcolleges, are often responsible; an ignorance that neither schools, academies nor colleges, can conceal from the humblest intellects; anignorance of life and things as they are within the sphere of our ownobservation. From this most deplorable ignorance this boy had escaped;and the light of learning illumined his mind, as the sun in his dailyreturn reveals anew those forms of life, which, even in an ungenialspring and early summer, his rays had warmed into existence, andnourished and cherished in their progress towards perfection. 

And, ladies and gentlemen, let us indulge the hope that the events ofthis day and the faith of this assembly will declare that it ispossible to save the children of orphanage, intemperance, neglect, scornand ignorance, from many of the evils which surround them. Let it not beassumed and believed that the task of training and saving girls is lesshopeful than similar labors in behalf of the other sex. It has beenfound true in Europe, and it is a prevailing opinion in this country, that, among adults, the reformation of females is more difficult thanthe reformation of males. But an analysis of this fact, assuming it tobe true, will unfold qualities of female character that render itpeculiarly easy to shield and save girls who are exposed to a life ofcrime; for, be it remembered, this institution deals with mere children, who are exposed, but not yet lost. It differs, in this respect, frommost institutions, although many include this class with others. And itmay be well to remark, that every reformatory school in Europe, eventhose altogether penal, --as Parkhurst in England, and Mettray inFrance, --have had some measure of success. Eighty-nine per cent. Of thecolons, or convicts, at Mettray, have become respectable and useful;while, of the youth sent to the ordinary jails and prisons, seventy-fiveper cent. Are totally lost. It is not fair, therefore, to assume thatthis attempt will fail. The degree of success will depend uponcircumstances and causes, to a great extent, within human control. There are, however, three elements of success, so distinct that they maywell stand as the appropriate divisions of what remains forconsideration. They are the right action of the government; the faithfulconduct of superintendent, matrons, and assistants; the sympathy and aidof the people of the state in matters which do not admit of legislativeinterference. 

The act of the Legislature, though voluminous in its details, contemplates only this: A home for girls between seven and sixteen yearsof age, who are found "in circumstances of want and suffering, or ofneglect, exposure, or abandonment, or of beggary. " The first idea of_home_ precludes the possibility of the inmates being sent here as apunishment for crime; therefore they are neither adjudged nor actualcriminals, but persons exposed to a vicious life. Secondly, the idea ofhome involves the necessity of reproducing the family relation, ascircumstances may permit. Hence, the members of this institution are tobe divided into families; and over each a matron will preside, who is tobe a kind, affectionate, discreet mother to the children. 

And here, for once, in Massachusetts, a public institution has escapedthe tyranny of bricks and mortar; and we are permitted to indulge thehope, that any future additions will tend to make this spot aneighborhood of unostentatious cottages, quiet rural homes, rather thanthe seat of a vast edifice, which may provoke the wonder of thesight-seer, inflame local or state pride, but can never be an effectual, economical agency in the work of reformation. Every public institutionhas some great object. Architecture should bend itself to that object, and become its servant; and it must ever be deemed a mistake, whenutility is sacrificed that art or fancy may have its way. 

Reformation, if wrought by external influences, is the result ofpersonal kindness. Personal kindness can exist only where there isintimate personal acquaintance; this acquaintance is impossible in aninstitution of two, three, or five hundred inmates. But, in a family often, twenty, or thirty, this knowledge will exist, and this kindnessabound. Warm personal attachments will grow up in the family, and theseattachments are likely to become safeguards of virtue. 

Nor let the objection prevail that the expense is to be increased. It isnot the purpose to set up an establishment and maintain it for aspecific sum of money, but to provide thorough mental and moral trainingfor the inmates. Make the work efficient, though it be limited to asmall number, rather than inaugurate a magnificent failure. 

The state has wisely provided that the "trustees shall cause the girlsunder their charge to be instructed in piety and morality, and in suchbranches of useful knowledge as shall be adapted to their age andcapacity; they shall also be instructed in some regular course of labor, either mechanical, manufacturing, or horticultural, or a combination ofthese, and especially in such domestic and household labor and duties asshall be best suited to their age and strength, disposition andcapacity; also in such other arts, trades, and employments, as may seemto the trustees best adapted to secure their reformation, amendment, andfuture benefit. "

It is sometimes the bane of the poor that they do not work, and it isoften equally the bane of the rich that they have nothing to do. Theidle, both rich and poor, carry a weight of reproach that not all oughtto bear. The disposition and the ability to labor are both the result ofeducation; and why should the uneducated be better able to labor than toread Greek and Latin? Surely only that there are more teachers in onedepartment than in the others; but a good teacher of labor may be asuncommon as a good teacher of Latin or Greek. There is a false, vicious, unmanly pride, which leads our youth of both sexes to shun labor; andit is the business of the true teacher to extirpate this growth of adiseased civilization. And we could have no faith in this school, if itwere not a school of industry as well as of morality, --a school in whichthe divine law of labor is to be observed equally with the laws of men. Industry is near to all the virtues. In this era every branch of laboris an art, and sometimes it is necessary for the laborer to be both anartist and a scientific person. How great, then, the misfortune ofthose, whether rich or poor, who are uninstructed in the business oflife! We should hardly know what judgment to pass upon a man of wealthwho should entirely neglect the education of his children in schools;but the common indifference to industrial learning is not lessreprehensible. Labor should be systematic; not constant, indeed, butalways to be reckoned as the great business of life, never to beavoided, never to cease. 

Labor gives us a better knowledge of the fulness, magnificence andglory, of the divine blessing of creation. This lesson may be learned bythe farmer in the wonderful growth of vegetation; by the artist, in thepowers of invention and taste of the human mind and soul; by the man ofscience, in the beauty of an insect or the order of a universe. Thevision of the idle is limited. The ability to see may be improved byeducation as much as the ability to read, remember, or converse. Withmany people, not seeing is a habit. Near-sighted persons are generallythose who declined to look at distant objects; and so nature, true tothe most perfect rules of economy, refused to keep in order facultiesthat were entirely neglected. The laborer's recompense is not money, northe accumulation of worldly goods chiefly; but it is in his increasedability to observe, appreciate, and enjoy the world, with its beautiesand blessings. Nor is labor, the penalty for sin, a punishment merely, but a divine means of reformation. It is, therefore, a moral disciplinethat all should submit to; and especially is it a means by which theyouth here are to be prepared for the duties of life. But industry isnot only near to all the virtues; it is itself a virtue, as idleness isa vice. The word _labor_ is, of course, used in the broadestsignification. Labor is any honest employment, or use of the head orhands, which brings good to ourselves, and consequently, thoughindirectly, brings good to our fellow-men. 

The state has now furnished a home, reproduced, as far as practicable, the family relation, and provided for a class of neglected and exposedgirls the means of mental, industrial, moral, and religious culture. Theplan appears well; but its practical value depends upon the fidelity ofits execution by the superintendent, matrons and assistants. I ventureto predict in advance, that the degree of success is mainly within theircontrol. This is a school, they are the teachers; and they must bend tothe rule which all true teachers willingly accept. 

The teacher must be what he would have his pupils become. This was thestandard of the great Teacher; this is the aim of all who desire to makeeducation a matter of reality and life, and not merely a knowledge ofsigns and forms. Here will be needed a spirit and principle of devotionwhich will be fruitful in humility, patience, earnestness, energy, goodwords and works for all. Here must be strictness, possibly sternness ofdiscipline; but this is not incompatible with the qualities mentioned. It is a principle at Mettray to combine unbounded personal kindness witha rigid exclusion of personal indulgence. 

This principle produces good results that are two-fold in theirinfluence. First, personal kindness in the teacher induces a reciprocalquality in the pupils. The habit of personal kindness, proceeding fromright feelings, is a potent element of good in the family, the school, and the prison. Indeed, it is an element of good citizenship; and no onedestitute of this quality ought to be intrusted with the education ofchildren, or the punishment and reformation of criminals. 

Secondly, the rigid exclusion of personal indulgence trains the inmatesin the virtue of self-control. And may it not be forgotten that allapparent reformation must be hedged by this cardinal virtue of practicallife! Otherwise the best-formed expectations will fail; the highesthopes will be disappointed; and the life of these teachers, and thepromise of the youth who may be gathered here, will be like the sun andthe winds upon the desert, which bring neither refreshing showers norfruitful harvests. Every form of labor requires faith. This laborrequires faith in yourselves, and faith in others;--faith in yourselves, as teachers here, based upon your own knowledge of what you are and areto do; and faith in others upon the divine declaration that God breathedinto man the breath of life, and he became a living soul, --not merely asthe previous creations, possessed of animal life; but as a sentient, intellectual, and moral being, capable of a progressive, immortalexistence. 

 "'Tis nature's law That none, the meanest of created things, * * * * *

 Should exist Divorced from good, --a spirit and pulse of good, A life and soul, to every mode of being Inseparably linked. 

 See, then, your only conflict is with men; And your sole strife is to defend and teach The unillumined, who, without such care, Must dwindle. "

And always, as in the beginning, the reliance of this school is upon thepeople of the commonwealth, whose voice has spoken into existenceanother instrumentality to give eyes to the blind, ears to the deaf, aheart for the work of this life, and a hope for an hereafter, to thosewho from neglect and vicious example would soon pass the period ofreformation. But may the people always bear in mind the indisputabletruth, that schools for the criminal and the exposed yield not theirperfect fruits in a day or a year! They must, if they will know whetherthe seed here planted produces a harvest, wait for the birth and growthof one generation, the decay and death of another. Yet these years ofdelay will not be years of uncertainty. The public faith will bestrengthened continually by cases of reformation, usefulness, andvirtue. But, whether these cases be few or many, let no one despond. Thecareer of the criminal is, often in money and always in influence, theheaviest burden which an individual can impose upon society. 

This is a school for girls; and we may properly appeal to the women ofMassachusetts to do their duty to this institution, and to the cause itrepresents. We can already see the second stage in the existence of manyof those who are to be sent here; and there is good reason to fear thatthe relation of mistress and servant among us is in some degreedestitute of those moral qualities that make the house a home for allwho dwell beneath its roof. But, whether this fear be the voice of truthor the suggestion of prejudice, that woman shall not be held blameless, who, under the influence of indolence, pride, fashion, or avarice, shallneglect, abuse, or oppress, the humblest of her sex who goes forth fromthese walls into the broad and dangerous path of life. But this dayshall not leave the impression that they who are most interested in theelevation and refinement of female character are indifferent to themeans employed, and the results which are to wait on them. 

The greatest delineator of human character in this age says, as theimages of neglected children pass before his vision:

"There is not one of them--not one--but sows a harvest mankind _must_reap. From every seed of evil in this boy a field of ruin is grown thatshall be gathered in, and garnered up, and sown again in many places inthe world, until regions are over-spread with wickedness enough to raisethe waters of another deluge. Open and unpunished murder in a city'sstreets would be less guilty in its daily toleration than one suchspectacle as this. There is not a father, by whose side, in his daily ornightly walk, these creatures pass; there is not a mother among all theranks of loving mothers in this land; there is no one risen from thestate of childhood, but shall be responsible, in his or her degree, forthis enormity. There is not a country throughout the earth on which itwould not bring a curse. There is no religion upon earth that it wouldnot deny; there is no people on earth that it would not put to shame. "

This institution, then, in the true relation of things, is not the gloryof the state, but its shame. It speaks of families, of schools, of thechurch, of the state, not yet educated to the discharge of theirrespective duties in the right way. But it is the glory of the state asa visible effort to correct evils, atone for neglects, and compensatefor wrongs. It comes to do, in part at least, what the family, theschool, the press, the library, the Sabbath, have nest yet perfectlyaccomplished. As these agencies partially failed, so will this; but, asthe law of progress exists for all, because perfection with us isunattainable, we may reasonably have faith in human improvement, andtrust that the life of each succeeding generation shall unite, inever-increasing proportions, the innocence of childhood with the wisdomof age. 

ELEMENTARY TRAINING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

[Extract from the Twenty-Second Annual Report of the Secretary of theMassachusetts Board of Education. ]

We are still sadly defective in methods of education. Until recentlyteaching was almost an unknown art; and we are at present strugglingagainst ignorance without any well-defined plan, and attempting todevelop and build up the immortal character of children, without aphilosophical and generally accepted theory of the nature of the humanmind. There are complaints that the duties and exactions of the schoolsinjure the health and impair the constitutions of pupils; that theprogress in intellectual attainments is not always what it should be;that the training given is sometimes determined by the wishes ofcommittees against the better judgment of competent teachers; that thetext-books are defective; that the studies in the common schools are toonumerous; that the elements are consequently neglected; and that, infine, too much thought is bestowed upon exhibitions and contests forpublic prizes, to the injury of good learning, and of individual andgeneral character. For these complaints there is some foundation; butcare should be exercised lest incidental and necessary evils become, inthe public estimation, great wrongs, and exceptional cases the evidenceof general facts. 

It is to some extent true that the duties and exactions of the schoolsseriously test the health of pupils; but it is, as I believe, moregenerally true that many pupils are physically unable to meet theordinary and proper duties of the school-room. School life, as usuallyconducted, is physically injurious, and our best efforts thus far havebeen limited to the dissemination of elementary knowledge of physiologyas a science, and to an acquaintance with a limited number of importantphysiological facts. Yet even here little has been accomplished incomparison with what may be done. In this department there is muchinstruction given that has no practical value, and children are oftenpermitted to live in daily and uniform neglect of the most essentialtruths of science and the facts of human experience. Neither physiologynor hygiene can be of much value in the schools, as a study, unlessthere is an application of what is taught. Great proficiency cannot bemade in these branches in the brief period of school life; but acompetent teacher may induce the pupils to put in practice the lessonsthat are applicable to childhood and youth. If, however, as is sometimesthe case, pupils are undermining the physical constitution in theirefforts to know how they are made, the loss is, unquestionably, morethan the gain. Physical health and growth depend, first, uponopportunity; and hence it happens that, where physical life is mostdefective, there the greatest difficulties in the way of its improvementare found. Boys born in the country, living upon farms, accustomedcontinually to outdoor labors and sports, walking a mile or more everyday to school, have but little use, in their own persons, for thescience or facts of physiology; and it is a very rare thing, where suchconditions have existed, that any teacher is able to exact an amount ofintellectual service that proves in any perceptible degree injurious. 

But these opportunities are not so generally enjoyed by girls, and themass of children in cities are wholly deprived of them. In the country, and even in villages and towns of considerable size, there is no excuse, better than ignorance or indifference, for the lack of judicious andefficient physical training of children and youth of both sexes. Butignorance and indifference are facts; and, while and where they exist, they are prejudicial to the growth of mind and body. The age at whichchildren should be admitted to school has not been ascertained, nor cana satisfactory rule upon this point ever be laid down. If children arenot in schools, they are yet subject to influences that are formative ofcharacter. When proper government and methods of education exist athome, the presence of the child in school at an early age is notdesirable. Even when education at home is not methodical, it may becontinued until the child is seven or even eight years of age, if it isat once moral, intelligent, and controlling. It is not, however, wise toexpect a child who is infirm physically to perform the labors imposed bythe necessary and proper regulations of school. When children enjoy goodhealth, and are not blessed with suitable training at home, they may beintroduced to the school, at the age of five years, with positiveadvantage to themselves and to society. 

When the child is a member of the school, what shall be done with him?He must first be taught to take an interest in the exercises by makingthe exercises interesting to him. That the transition from home to theschool may be easy, he should first occupy himself with those topics andstudies that are presented to the eye and to the ear, and may bemastered, so as to produce the sensation that follows achievement withonly a moderate use of the reasoning and reflective faculties. Amongthese are reading, writing, music, and drawing. This is also the timewhen object lessons may be given with great advantage. The forms andnames of geometrical solids may be taught. Exercises may be introducedtending to develop those powers by which we comprehend the qualities ofcolor, size, density, form, and weight. Important moral truths may bepresented with the aid of suitable illustrations. In every school theteacher and text-books may be considered a positive quality which shouldbalance the negative power of the school itself. In primary schoolstext-books have but little value, and the chief reliance is, therefore, upon the teacher. Instruction must be mainly oral; hence the mind of theteacher should be well furnished, and her capacities chastened byconsiderable experience. As the pupils are unable to study, the teachermust lead in all their exercises, and find profitable employment for thechildren, or they will give themselves up to play or to stupidlistlessness. Of these alternatives, the latter is more objectionablethan the former. 

It is, of course, not often possible for a teacher to occupy herself sixhours a day with a single class in a primary school, especially if sheconfines her attention to the studies enumerated. In many schools, ofvarious grades, gymnastic exercises have been introduced with markedadvantage. There are many such exercises which do not need apparatus, and in which the teacher can properly lead. 

These furnish a healthful variety to the studies usually pursued, andthey prepare the pupils to receive appropriate instruction in sitting, standing, and in the modulation and use of the voice. Indeed, gymnasticexercises are indispensable aids to proper training in reading, which, as an art of a high order, is immediately dependent upon position, habits of breathing, the consequent power of voice, and expressivenessof tone. I am fully satisfied that much more may be done in the earlyperiod of school life than is usually accomplished. In the districtmixed schools the primary pupils receive but little attention, and theyare not infrequently occupied from one to three years in obtaining animperfect knowledge of the alphabet. Usually much better results areattained by the combined agency of the home and the school, but there isan average loss of one-fourth of the time employed in teaching andlearning the elements of our language. 

Mr. Philbrick, Superintendent of Public Schools in Boston, has taughtand trained a class of fifty primary-school pupils with a degree ofsuccess which fully sustains the statement of the average waste inschools generally. Twenty-two lessons of a half-hour each were given;and in this brief period of time the class, with a few exceptions, wereso well advanced that they could write the alphabet in capital andscript hand, give the elementary sounds of the letters, produce and namethe Arabic characters and the common geometrical figures found uponHolbrook's slates. I saw a girl, five and a half years of age, write thealphabet without delay in script hand, in a manner that would have beencreditable to a pupil in a grammar school. 

I present Mr. Philbrick's own account of his mode of proceeding, in anextract from his third quarterly report to the school committee of thecity of Boston. 

"The regulations relating to the primary schools require every scholarto be provided with a slate, and to employ the time not otherwiseoccupied in drawing or writing words from their spelling lessons, ontheir slates, in a plain script hand. It is further stated, in the sameconnection, that the teachers are expected to take special pains toteach the first class to write--not print--all the letters of thealphabet on slates. 

"The language of this requirement seems to imply that the classes belowthe first are to draw and write words, in a plain script hand, withoutany special pains to teach them, and that by such occupation they wereto be kept from idleness. As I saw neither of these objectsaccomplished in any primary school, I thought it worth while to satisfymyself, by actual experiment, what can and ought to be done, in the useof the slate and blackboard, in teaching writing and drawing in primaryschools. To accomplish this object, I have given a course of lessons ina graded or classified school of the third class. The number of pupilsinstructed in the class was about fifty. The materials of the school arerather below the average; about twenty of the pupils being of thatdescription usually found in schools for special instruction. Theschool-room is furnished, as every primary school-room should be, withstationary chairs and desks, and Holbrook's primary slates. Twenty-twolessons, of from thirty to forty minutes each, were given, aboutone-third of the time being devoted to drawing, and two-thirds towriting. As to the method pursued, the main points were, to present buta single element at a time; to illustrate on the blackboard defects andexcellences in execution; frequent review of the ground passed over, especially in the _first_ steps of the course; a vigorous exercise ofall the mental faculties requisite for the performance of the task; anda desire for improvement, encouraged and stimulated by the best andstrongest available motives; the greater part of the time beingbestowed upon the dull and backward pupils. 

"The result has exceeded my expectations. About three-fourths of thenumber taught can draw most of the simple mathematical lines andfigures, given as copies on the slates used, with tolerable accuracy, and write all the letters of the alphabet in a fair script hand. Thisexperiment satisfies me that, with the proper facilities, the threeupper classes in graded primary schools can be taught to write theletters of the alphabet in a plain script hand, and even to join theminto words, without any material hindrance to the other requiredstudies; and, moreover, that the great remedy for the complaint of wantof time, in these schools, is the increase of skill in the art ofteaching. "

It is well known that in this country and in Europe methods of teachingthe alphabet have been introduced which materially diminish the labor ofteachers, and lessen the drudgery to which children are usuallysubjected. The alphabet is taught as an object lesson. The object isusually an animal, plant, or flower. More frequently the first. The mindof the child is awakened either by the presence of the animal, or by abrief but vivid description of its characteristics. The children arefirst required to pronounce properly the name of the animal. Here is anopportunity for training in the use of the voice, and in the art ofbreathing, with which the general health, as well as the vocal power, isintimately connected. The word which is the name of the animal isanalyzed into its elementary sounds. It may then be reconstructedwithout the aid of visible signs, either written or printed. Next theteacher produces the signs which stand for the several sounds, and givestheir names. The letters are presented in any way that suits theteacher. There may be no better method than to produce them upon theblackboard, as this course encourages the pupils to draw them upon theirslates, and thus they are at once, and without formal preliminaries, engaged in writing. 

An outline of the animal may be drawn upon the blackboard, which thepupils will eagerly copy; and though this exercise may not be valuablein a high degree, as preparation for the systematic study of drawing, yet it trains the perceptive and reflective faculties in a manner thatis pleasant to the great majority of children. It is also in the powerof the teacher, at any point in the exercises, and with reference bothto variety and usefulness, to give the most apparent facts, which tochildren are the most interesting facts, in the natural history of theanimal. This plan contemplates instruction in pronunciation inconnection with exercises in breathing, in the elementary sounds ofwords both consonant and vowel, in the names of letters, in writing anddrawing, to all of which may be added something of natural history. Itis of course to be understood that such exercises would be extended overmany lessons, be subject to frequent reviews, and valuable in proportionto the teacher's ability to interest children. The outline given issuggestive, merely, and it is not presented as a plan of a model course;but enough has been done and is doing in this department to warrantincreased attention, and to justify the belief that a degree of progresswill soon be made in teaching the elements that will mark the epoch as arevolution in educational affairs. It is to be observed that the systemindicated requires a high order of teaching talent. Only thoroughprofessional culture, or long and careful experience, will meet theclaims of such a course. It is quite plain, however, that no advantagewould arise from keeping pupils in school six hours each day; and that, regarding only the intellectual advancement of the child during theelementary course, his presence might be reduced to two hours, orpossibly in some cases to one: provided, always, that he could enjoy, with his class associates, the undivided attention of the teacher. Inthis view of the subject, it would be possible, where the primaryschools are graded, as in portions of the city of Boston, for oneteacher to take charge of two classes or schools, each for an hour inthe forenoon and an hour in the afternoon. This arrangement would applyonly to the younger pupils; yet I am aware that parents and the publicwould be solicitous concerning the manner of employing the time thatwould remain. In the cities this question is one of magnitude, and thereare strong reasons for declining any proposition to reduce the schoolday full one-half, which does hot provide occupation for the childrenduring the remainder of the time. It is only in connection with such aproposition that projects for gymnastic training are practicable. Whenchildren are employed six hours in school, it is not easy to find timefor a course of systematic physical education; and physical education, to be productive of appreciable advantages, must be systematic. Whenleft to children and youth, or to the care of parents, very little willbe accomplished. Children will participate in the customary sports, andperform the allotted labors; but in cities these sports and labors areinadequate even for boys, and in country, as well as city, girls areoften the victims of neglect in this respect. Availing ourselves, then, of the light shed by recent experience upon the subject of primaryinstruction, it seems possible to diminish the length of the school daywith a gain rather than a loss of educational power. This change may befollowed by the establishment, in cities and large towns, of publicgymnasiums, where teachers answering in moral qualifications to therequisitions of the laws shall be employed, and where each child, forone, two, or three years, shall receive discreet and careful, butvigorous physical training. After a few years thus passed incorresponding and healthful development of the mind and body, the pupilis prepared for admission to the advanced schools, where he can submit, with perfect safety, to greater mental requirements even than are nowmade. The school, as at present constituted, cannot do much for physicaleducation; and it must, as a necessity and a duty, graduate its demandsto the physical as well as the intellectual abilities of its pupils. ButI am satisfied that it is occasionally made to bear a weight of reproachthat ought to be laid upon the customs and habits of domestic, socialand general life. 

Assuming that the principal work of the primary schools, after moral andphysical culture, should be to give instruction in reading, spelling, writing, music and drawing, it is just to say that special attentionshould be bestowed upon the two branches first named. So imperfectly isreading sometimes taught, that pupils are found in advanced classes, andin advanced schools, whose progress in other branches is retarded bytheir inability to read the language fluently and intelligently. Whenchildren are well educated in reading, they find profitable employment;and they are, of course, by the knowledge of language acquired, able tocomprehend, with greater facility, every study to which they are called. 

Pupils often appear dull in grammar, geography and arithmetic, merelybecause they are poor readers. A child is not qualified to use atext-book of any science until he is able to read with facility, as weare accustomed to speak, in groups of words. This ability he cannotacquire without a great deal of practice. If phonetic spelling iscommenced with the alphabet, he will be accurately trained in that artalso. It is certain that reading, writing and spelling, have beenneglected in our schools generally. 

If there is to be a reform, it must be commenced, and in a considerabledegree accomplished, in the primary schools. These studies will betaught afterwards; but the grammar and high schools can never compensatefor any defect permitted, or any wrong done, in the primary schools. Reading is first mechanical, and then intellectual and emotional. In theprimary schools attention is first given to mechanical training, whilethe intellectual and emotional culture is necessarily in a degreepostponed. When the first part of the work is thoroughly done, there isno ground for complaint, and we may look to the teachers of advancedclasses and schools for the proper performance of the remaining duty. The ability to spell arbitrarily, either in writing or orally, and theability to read mechanically, --that is, the ability to seize the wordsreadily, and utter them fluently and accurately, --must be acquired bymuch spelling and much reading. 

This work belongs to the early years of school-life; and, if it can befaithfully performed, the introduction of text-books in grammar, geography and arithmetic, may be wisely postponed. But it is a sadcondition of things, which we are often compelled to contemplate, when apupil, who might have become a respectable reader had the elementarytraining been careful, accurate and long-continued, is introduced to anadvanced class, and there struggles against obstacles which he cannotcomprehend, and which the teacher cannot remove, and finally leaves theschool without the ability to read in a manner intelligible to himself, or satisfactory to others. It is the appropriate work of primaryschools, and of the teachers of primary classes in district schools, todevelop and chasten the moral powers of children, to train them in thosehabits and practices that are favorable to health and life, whetheranything is known of physiology as a science or not, and to give thebest culture possible to the eye, the ear, the hand and the voice. Thisplan is comprehensive enough for any teacher, and it will be foundsufficient for any pupil less than ten years of age. Nor am I speakingof that culture which is merely preparatory for the life of the artist, but of that practical training which will enable the subject of it so touse his powers as to render his life valuable to himself, and valuableto the world. There will be, in the exercises comprehended by thisoutline, sufficient mental discipline. It will, of course, be chieflyincidental, and it may well be doubted whether studies that are merelydisciplinary should ever be introduced into our schools. There areuseful occupations for pupils that, at the same time, tax and test themind sufficiently. The plan indicated does not exclude grammar, geography and mental arithmetic, but text-books will not at first beneeded. Grammar should be taught by conversation, and in connection withthe exercises in reading. Grammar is the appreciation of the power ofthe words of the language in any given relations to each other, and aknowledge of grammar is essential to the ability to speak, read andwrite properly. Therefore, grammatical rules and definitions are, orshould be, deduced from the language. Hence children should be firsttrained to speak with accuracy, so that habit shall be on the side oftaste and science; next the offices which words perform in simplesentences should be illustrated and made clear; And thus far withouttext-books; when, finally, with their help, the pupils in the higherschools may acquire a knowledge of the science, and, at once, as theresult of previous training, discern the reason for each rule anddefinition. The study of grammar requires some use of mental power; butwhen it is presented to pupils by the aid of an object which, in itselfand in what it does, illustrates the subject and the predicate of asentence, the work of comprehending the offices which words perform isrendered comparatively easy. Having the skeleton thus furnished, andwith the eyes and minds of the pupils fixed upon an object thatpossesses known and appreciable powers and qualities, it is notdifficult for the teacher to construct a sentence that shall containwords of several parts of speech, all understood, because thegrammatical office of each was seen even before the word itself wasused. This work may be commenced when the child is young, and verysatisfactory results ought to be secured as soon as the pupil is inother respects qualified to enter a grammar school. The pupil should betrained in reading as an art; that is, with the purpose of expressingwhatever is intellectual and emotional in the text. Satisfactory resultscannot at first be secured by much reading; it seems wiser for theteacher to select an extract, paragraph, or single sentence only, anddrill a pupil or a class until the meaning of the author iscomprehended, and accurately or even artistically expressed. This can bedone only when the teacher reads the passage again and again in the bestmanner possible. The contrary practice of reading volumes of extractsfrom the writings of the most gifted men of ancient and modern times, without preparation by the pupil, without example, explanation, correction, or questionings, by the teacher, cannot be too stronglycondemned. The time will come when these selections may be read withprofit; but it is better to read something well than to read a greatdeal; or there should be at least thorough drill in connection withevery exercise, until the pupils have attained some degree ofperfection. It may not be best to confine advanced pupils to theexercises in the text-books. If such pupils are invited occasionally tomake selections from their entire range of reading, the teacher willhave an opportunity to correct whatever is vicious in taste; and thepupil making the selection will be compelled to read in such a mannerthat those who listen can understand, which is not always the case whenthe language is addressed to the eye as well as to the ear. 

The introduction of Colburn's Intellectual Arithmetic was an epoch inthe science. It wrought a radical change in the ability of the people toapply the power of numbers to the practical business of life. Itsexcellence does not consist in rules and illustrations by which examplesand problems are easily solved, but in leading the mind of the pupilinto natural and apparent processes of reasoning, by which he is enabledto comprehend a proposition as an independent fact. Herein is a mentaldiscipline of great value, not only in the sciences, but in the dailyaffairs of men of all classes and conditions. It is to be feared thatequally satisfactory results have not been attained in what is calledwritten arithmetic. This partial failure deserves consideration. Thefirst cause may be found in an erroneous opinion concerning thedifference between mental and written arithmetic. Written arithmetic ismental arithmetic merely, with a record at given stages of the processof what at that point is accomplished. But, as written arithmetic tendsto lessen the power of the pupil for the performance of those operationsthat are purely mental, he should be subjected, each day, to a searchingand rapid drill in mental arithmetic also. This neglect on the part ofteachers explains the singular fact that pupils, well trained in mentalarithmetic, after attending to written arithmetic for three or sixmonths, appear to have lost rather than gained in their knowledge of thescience as a whole. 

The second cause of failure may be found in the fact that rules, processes and simple methods of solution, contained in the books, aresubstituted for the power of comprehension by the pupil. He should betrained to seize an example mentally, whether the slate is to be used ornot, and hold it until he can determine by what process the solution isto be wrought. Nor is it a serious objection that he may not at firstavail himself of the easiest method. The difference between methods orways is altogether a subordinate consideration. There may be many waysof reaching a truth, but no one of them is as important as the truthitself. The text-books should contain all the facts needed for thecomprehension and the solution of the examples given; the teacher shouldfurnish explanations and other aids, as they are needed; but thepractice of adopting a process and following it to an apparentlysatisfactory conclusion, without comprehending the problem itself, is aserious educational evil, and it exerts a permanent perniciousinfluence. 

The remarks I have now made upon methods of teaching, which may seem tohave been offered in a spirit of severe criticism, should be qualifiedand relieved by the statement that our teachers are as well educated asany in the country, and that they are yearly making progress in theirprofession. Indeed, I am encouraged to suggest that better things arepossible, by the consideration that many instances of distinguishedsuccess in teaching the alphabet, reading and grammar, are known to me;and that teachers are themselves aware that the work is, upon the whole, inadequately performed. If, as is generally conceded, the highest orderof teaching talent is required in the primary schools, then that talentshould be sought out by committees; the persons possessing it shouldenjoy the best means of preparation; they should receive the highestrewards, both in money and public consideration, and they should beinduced to labor, without change or interruption, in the same schoolsand the same people. 

THE RELATIVE MERITS OF PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS AND ENDOWED ACADEMIES. 

[Remarks before the American Institute of Instruction, at Manchester, N. H. ]

Indebted to my friend on the other side, and to you, sir, and thisaudience, for inviting me to take a position on this floor, I am stillwithout any special preparation to discuss the subject. I have thoughtupon it, because any one, however humbly connected with free schools inthis country, must have done so. And especially just now, when, in theeducational journal of Massachusetts, a discussion has been conductedbetween one of its editors and Mr. Gulliver, the able originator of aschool in Norwich, Ct. , and the advocate of the system of schoolgovernment established there. And, therefore, every one who has had hiseyes open must have seen that here is a great contest, and thatunderlying it is a principle which is important to society. 

The distinguishing difference between the advocates of endowed schoolsand of free schools is this: those who advocate the system of endowedacademies go back in their arguments to one foundation, which is, thatin education of the higher grades the great mass of the people are notto be trusted. And those who advocate a system of free education in highschools put the matter where we have put the rights of property andliberty, where we put the institutions of law and religion--upon thepublic judgment. And we will stand there. If the public will notmaintain institutions of learning, then, I say, let institutions oflearning go down. If I belong to a state which cannot be moved from itsextremities to its centre, and from its centre to its extremities, forthe maintenance of a system of public instruction, then, in thatrespect, I disown that state; and if there be one state in this Unionwhose people cannot be aroused to maintain a system of publicinstruction, then they are false to the great leading idea of Americanprinciples, and of civil, political, and religious liberty. 

It is easy to enumerate the advantages of a system of public education, and the evils--I say evils--of endowed academies, whether free orcharging payment for tuition. Endowed academies are not, in allrespects, under all circumstances, and everywhere, to be condemned. Indiscussing this subject, it may be well for me to state the view that Ihave of the proper position of endowed academies. They have a place inthe educational wants of this age. This is especially true of academiesof the highest rank, which furnish an elevated and extended course ofinstruction. To such I make no objection, but I would honor andencourage them. Yet I regard private schools, which do the work usuallydone in public schools, as temporary, their necessity as ephemeral, andI think that under a proper public sentiment they will soon pass away. They cannot stand, --such has been the experience in Massachusetts, --theycannot stand by the side of a good system of public education. Yet wherethe population is sparse, where there is not property sufficient toenable the people to establish a high school, then an endowed school mayproperly come in to make up the deficiency, to supply the means ofeducation to which the public wealth, at the present moment, is unequal. Endowed institutions very properly, also, give a professional educationto the people. At this moment we cannot look to the public to give thateducation which is purely professional. But what we do look to thepublic for is this: to furnish the means of education to the children ofthe whole people, without any reference to social, pecuniary, political, or religious distinctions, so that every person may have a preliminaryeducation sufficient for the ordinary business of life. 

It is said that the means of education are better in an endowedacademy, or in an endowed free school, than they can be in a publicschool. What is meant by _means_ of education? I understand that, firstand chiefly, as extraneous means of education, we must look to a correctpublic sentiment, which shall animate and influence the teacher, whichshall give direction to the school, which shall furnish the necessarypublic funds. An endowed free academy can have none of these thingspermanently. Take, for example, the free school established at Norwichby the liberality of thirty or forty gentlemen, who contributed ninetythousand dollars. What security is there that fifty years hence, whenthe educational wants of the people shall be changed, when thepopulation of Norwich shall be double or treble what it is now, whenscience shall make greater demands, when these forty contributors shallhave passed away, this institution will answer the wants of thatgeneration? According to what we know of the history of this country, itwill be entirely inadequate; and, though none of us may live to see theprediction fulfilled or falsified, I do not hesitate to say that theschool will ultimately prove a failure, because it is founded in amistake. 

Then look and see what would have been the state of things if there hadbeen public spirit invoked to establish a public high school, and if themeans for its support had been raised by taxation of all the people, sothat the system of education would have expanded according to the growthof the city, and year by year would have accommodated itself to thepublic wants and public zeal in the cause. Though these means seem nowto be ample, they will by and by be found too limited. The school atNorwich is encumbered with regulations; and so every endowed institutionis likely to be, because the right of a man to appropriate his propertyto a particular object carries with it, in the principles of common law, and in the administration of the law, in all free governments, the rightto declare, to a certain extent, how that property shall be applied. Rules have been established--very proper and judicious rules for to-day. But who knows that a hundred years hence they will be proper oracceptable at all? They have also established a board of trustees, ultimately to be reduced to twenty-five. These trustees have power toperpetuate themselves. Who does not see that you have severed thisinstitution from the public sentiment of the city of Norwich, and thatultimately that city will seek for itself what it needs; and that, ahundred years hence, it will not consent to live, in the civilization ofthat time, under the regulations which forty men have now established, however wise the regulations may at the present moment be?

One hundred and fifty years ago, Thomas Hollis, of London, made abequest to the university at Cambridge, with a provision that on everyThursday a professor should sit in his chair to answer questions inpolemic theology. All well enough then; but the public sentiment ofto-day will not carry it out. 

So it may be with the school at Norwich a hundred years hence. The manor state that sacrifices the living public judgment to the opinion of adead man, or a dead generation, makes a great mistake. We should neversubstitute, beyond the power of revisal, the opinion of a pastgeneration for the opinion of a living generation. I trust to the livingmen of to-day as to what is necessary to meet our existing wants, ratherthan to the wisest men who lived in Greece or Rome. And, if I would nottrust the wise men of Greece and Rome, I do not know why the people, ahundred years hence, should trust the wise men of our own time. 

And then look further, and see how, under a system of publicinstruction, you can build up, from year to year, in the growth of thechild, a system according to his wants. Private instruction cannot dothis. What do we do where we have a correct system? A child goes into aprimary school. He is not to go out when he attains a certain age. Hemight as well go out when he is of a certain height; there would be asmuch merit in one case as in the other. But he is advanced when he hasmade adequate attainments. Who does not see that the child is incitedand encouraged and stimulated by every sentiment to which you shouldappeal? And, then, when he has gone up to the grammar school, we say tohim, "You are to go into the high school when you have made certainattainments. " And who is to judge of these attainments? A committeeappointed by the people, over whom the people have some ultimatecontrol. And in that control they have security for two things: first, that the committee shall not be suspected of partiality; and secondly, that they shall not be actually guilty of partiality. In the samemanner, there is security for the proper connection between the highschool and the schools below. But in the school at Norwich--of which Ispeak because it is now prominent--you have a board of twenty-five men, irresponsible to the people. They select a committee of nine; thatcommittee determines what candidates shall be transferred from thegrammar schools to the high school. May there not be suspicion ofpartiality? If a boy or girl is rejected, you look for some social, political, or religious influence which has caused the rejection, andthe parent and child complain. Here is a great evil; for the real andapparent justice of the examination and decision by which pupils aretransferred from one school to another is vital to the success of thesystem. 

There is another advantage in the system of public high schools, which Iimagine the people do not always at first appreciate. It is, that theprivate school, with the same teachers, the same apparatus, and the samemeans, cannot give the education which may be, and usually is, furnishedin the public schools. This statement may seem to require someconsiderable support. We must look at facts as they are. Some people arepoor; I am sorry for them. Some people are rich, and I congratulate themupon their good fortune. But it is not so much of a benefit, after all, as many think. It is worth something in this world, no doubt, to berich; but what is the result of that condition upon the family first, the school afterwards, and society finally? It is, that some learn thelesson of life a little earlier than others; and that lesson is thelesson of self-reliance, which is worth more than--I will not say aknowledge of the English language--but worth more than Latin or Greek. If the great lesson of self-reliance is to be learned, who is morelikely to acquire it early, --the child of the poor, or the child of therich; the child who has most done for him, or the child who is under thenecessity of doing most for himself? Plainly, the latter. Now, while asystem of public instruction in itself cannot be magnified in itsbeneficial influences to the poor and to the children of the poor, it isequally beneficial to the rich in the facility it affords for theinstruction of their children. Is it not worth something to the richman, who cannot, from the circumstances of the case, teach self-reliancearound the family hearth, to send his child to school to learn thislesson with other children, that he may be stimulated, that he may beprovoked to exertions which he would not otherwise have made? For, be itremembered that in our schools public sentiment is as well marked as ina college, or a town, or a nation; that it moves forward in the sameway. And the great object of a teacher should be to create a publicsentiment in favor of virtue. There should be some pioneers in favor offorming a correct public sentiment; and when it is formed it moves onirresistibly. It is like the river made up of drops from the mountainside, moving on with more and more power, until everything in its watersis carried to the destined end. 

So in a public school. And it is worth much to the man of wealth thatthere may be, near his own door, an institution to which he may send hischildren, and under the influence of which they may be carried forward. For, depend upon it, after all we say about schools and institutions oflearning, it is nevertheless true of education, as a statesman has saidof the government, that the people look to the school for too much. Itis not, after all, a great deal that the child gets there; but, if heonly gets the ability to acquire more than he has, the schoolsaccomplish something. If you give a child a little knowledge ofgeography or arithmetic, and have not developed the power to accomplishsomething for himself, he comes to but little in the world. But put himinto the school, --the primary, grammar, and high school, where he mustlearn for himself, --and he will be fitted for the world of life intowhich he is to enter. 

You will see in this statement that, with the same parties, the samemeans of education, the same teachers, the public schools willaccomplish more than private schools. 

I find everywhere, and especially in the able address of Mr. Gulliver, to which I have referred, that the public schools are treated as ofquestionable morality, and it is implied that something would be gainedby removing certain children from the influence of these schools. If Iwere speaking from another point of view, very likely I should feelbound to hold up the evils and defects which actually exist in publicschools; but when I consider them in contrast with endowed and privateschools, I do not hesitate to say that the public schools comparefavorably; and, as the work of education goes on, the comparison will bemore and more to their advantage. Why? I know something of the privateinstitutions in Massachusetts; and there are boys in them who have leftthe public schools because they have fallen in their classes, and thepublic interest would not justify their continuance in the schools. Itwas always true that private schools did not represent the world exactlyas it was. It is worth everything to a boy or girl, man or woman, tolook the world in the face as it is. 

Therefore, the public school, when it represents the world as it is, represents the facts of life. The private school never has done andnever will do this; and as time goes on, it will be less and less a truerepresentative of the world. From this point of view, it seems to be amistake on the part of parents to exclude their children from the world. Is it not better that the child should learn something of society, evenof its evils, when under your influence, and when you can control him byyour counsel and example, than to permit him finally to go out, as youmust when his majority comes, perhaps to be seduced in a moment, as itwere, from his allegiance to virtue? Virtue is not exclusion from thepresence of vice; but it is resistance to vice in its presence. And itis the duty of parents to provide safeguards for the support of theirchildren against these temptations. When Cicero was called on to defendMuræna against the slander that, as he had lived in Asia, he had beenguilty of certain crimes, and when the testimony failed to substantiatethe charge, the orator said, "And if Asia does carry with it a suspicionof luxury, surely it is a praiseworthy thing, not never to have seenAsia, but to have lived temperately in Asia. " And we have yet higherauthority. It is not the glory of Christ, or of Christianity, that itsDivine Author was without temptation, but that, being tempted, he waswithout sin. This is the great lesson of the day. 

The duty of the public is to provide means for the education of all. Todo that, we need the political, social, and moral power of all, tosustain teachers and institutions of learning; and, endowed or freeschools, depending upon the contributions of individuals, can never, ina free country, be raised to the character of a system. If you rob thepublic schools of the influence of our public-spirited men, if they takeaway a portion of their pupils from them, our system is impaired. Itmust stand as a whole, educating the entire people, and looking to allfor support, or it cannot be permanently maintained. 

THE HIGH SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

[An Address delivered at the Dedication of the Powers Institute, Bernardston. ]

There cannot be a more gratifying spectacle than the universal homageoffered to education and to the young. Childhood is attractive initself; and it is peculiarly an object of solicitude for its promisesconcerning the future. Hence the labors of philanthropists, reformers, and Christians, as well as of teachers, are devoted to the culture andimprovement of the rising generation, as the chief security possible forthe prevalence of better ideas in the state and in the world. 

Massachusetts has been peculiarly favored in the means of education; andwe ought ever to recognize the divine influence in the wisdom which ledour fathers to lay the foundations of a system that contemplated theeducation of the whole people. The power of this great idea, universaleducation, has not been limited to Massachusetts; the states of theWest, the states of the South, receive it as the basis of a wise publicpolicy; and had our ancestors contributed nothing else to the glory ofthe republic, they would yet be entitled to the distinguishedconsideration of every age and people. The vigor of our culture and thehardihood of our institutions are more manifest out of Massachusettsthan in it. The immigrant in his new home in the great valley ofprairies, on the northern shores of the American lakes, in Oregon, California, or the islands of the Pacific, invokes the spirit of NewEngland in the establishment of a free church and a free school. And inthe spirit and discipline of New England, the thoughts of her sons areturned homeward in adversity, seeking consolation at the sources ofearly, vigorous, and happy life; or, in prosperity, that they may offer, in gratitude to man and to God, some tribute, always noble, howeverhumble, to the principles and institutions that first formed theircharacters, and then controlled their destiny; or, in old age, thewanderer, like Jacob in Egypt, with his blessing upon the tribes andfamilies of men, says, "I am to be gathered unto my people; bury me withmy fathers. " This occasion and its honors are due to the memory of himwhose name this institution bears; and his last will and testament is anillustration, or rather the cause, of these prefatory remarks. As thereasonably extended and eminently prosperous life of your wisebenefactor approached its close, he, in the principles of Old Englandand of New England, ordered and directed the payment of all his justdebts; and then, secondly, expressed the wish, "if practicable, to beburied by the side of his parents in the cemetery at Bernardston. " Firstjustice, and then affection for parents, kindred, and home, animated thevital, never-dying soul, as the life of the body ebbed and flowed, andflowed and ebbed, to flow no more. For every good the ancients imaginedand named a divinity; and there is in every good something divine. 

We do not deify the living nor the dead; yet such foundations andinstitutions as the Lawrence Scientific School, the Peabody Institute, the Powers Institute, will bear to a grateful posterity a knowledge ofthe virtues of their respective founders, and of the exactness, rectitude, and wisdom, of the public sentiment which religiouslyconsecrates the means provided to the ends proposed. 

But just eulogy of the dead is the appropriate duty of those who werethe associates and friends of the founder of this school. --It will be mypurpose, in the humble part I take in the services of this honoredoccasion, to point out, as I may be able, the connection betweenlearning and wisdom, and then, by the aid of some general remarks uponeducation, to examine the fitness of this foundation, and the ruleshere established, to promote human progress and virtue. 

The actual available power of a state is in its adult population; butits hope is in the classes of children and youth whose plastic mindsyield to good influences, and are moulded to higher forms of beauty thanhave been conceived by Italian or Grecian art. Excellence is alwaysadorable and to be adored. If it appear in beauty of person, it commandsour admiration; and how much more ought wisdom, which is the beauty ofthe mind and the excellency of the soul, to be cultivated and cherishedby every human being! "For what is there, O, ye gods!" says Cicero, "more desirable than wisdom? What more excellent and lovely in itself?What more useful and becoming for a man? Or what more worthy of hisreasonable nature?"

But wisdom cannot be acquired in a day, nor without devotion and toil. It is the achievement of a life. It is to be pursued carefully throughschools, colleges, and the world, --to be mastered by study, intensethought, rigid mental discipline, and an extensive acquaintance with thebest authors of ancient and modern times. It is not the child of ease, indolence, or luxury; and it is well that it is not, The best of humanpossessions are cheapened their attainment is no longer difficult. Thewealth of California and Australia has made silver, as an article ofluxury, the rival of gold; and the pearl loses its beauty when themountain streams are as fertile as the depths of the sea. Wisdomcomprehends learning, but learning is often found where wisdom iswanting. Wisdom is not accomplishment in study, or perfection in art, orsupremacy in poetry or eloquence. Learning is essential to wisdom, forwe cannot imagine a wise man who is not also a learned man; and theextent and soundness of his learning may be a measure of his wisdom. Wisdom must always have a basis of learning, but learning is not alwaysa basis of wisdom. Learning is a knowledge of particulars, of details;wisdom is such a combination of these particulars as enables us toharmonize our lives with the laws of nature and of God. 

Learning is manifested in what we know; wisdom in what we are, basedupon what we know. Philosophy, even, is love for wisdom rather thanwisdom itself. The old philosophers defined wisdom to be "the knowledgeof things, both divine and human, together with the causes on which theydepend;" and in the proverb of Solomon, "The fear of the Lord is theinstruction of wisdom. " Purity, truth, and justice, are also of itsfoundation. Wise men of the Jewish and Pagan world built on thisfoundation, and the Christian can build on none other. Having combinedlearning with these essential virtues, a liberal, symmetrical, comprehensive character may be built up. In the formation of such acharacter, industry, powers of observation, strength of will andintellectual humility, are requisite. The virtue and the glory ofindustry cannot be presented too often to the young. I know of noworldly good or human excellence that can be attained without it; nor isthere any inherited possession of name, or wealth, or position, that canbe preserved in its extent and quality without active, systematic, judicious labor. 

It is not necessary to consider industry as habitual diligence in apursuit, manual or intellectual; but rather as a judicious arrangementof business and recreation, so as always to have time for the necessaryduties of life. Mere diligence is not industry in a good sense; it islabor in a bad sense. Our time should be systematically appropriated toour employments, and each measure of time should be equal to the work orduty appointed for it. Moreover, each work or duty should beaccomplished in its appointed time; and this can be secured only by astrong will. The power of will admits of education, culture, improvement, as much as any faculty of the mind or quality ofcharacter. A fickle, planless life cannot accomplish much. System inour plans, and firmness of will in their execution, will place us beyondthe reach of ordinary disasters; yet how often do young men go through acourse of school studies without a plan, even for the moment, and enterupon life the slaves of chance, the victims of what they call fortune, while they might by industry, system and firmness of will, rise superiorto circumstances, and extort a measure of success not unworthy of anoble ambition!

Idleness is a wasting disease, a consuming fire, a destroying demon; inyouth it is a calamity, in the vigor of manhood it is a disgrace and asin, and in old age it can be honorably accepted only as the symbol ofreflective leisure earned by a life of industry and virtue. Industry isa badge of honor, an introduction everywhere to the true nobility of theworld, the security that each may take of the future for his ownhappiness and prosperity in it. 

Cardinal, personal virtues shrink and wither, or are blasted and die, inthe company of idleness; and, without firmness of will, the noblestprinciples and purest sentiments sometimes wear the livery of vice, andoften they give encouragement to it. Good principles, good purposes, good ideas, are made fruitful by a strong resolution; while without itthey are like bubbles of water, brilliant in the sun-light, but destinedto collapse by the changing, silent force of the medium in which theyfloat. And can any life, not positively vicious and criminal, be lessdesirable than that of the young man who quietly accepts whatevercondition circumstances assign to him? I speak now of his moral andintellectual condition rather than of his social position among men. Thelatter is not in itself important, and only becomes so through theexhibition of high qualities of mind and character. Social and politicalconsideration we cannot demand as a right; but we may acquire knowledge, develop qualities of character, give evidences of wisdom that entitle usto the respect of our fellows. 

It may be agreeable, but it is not absolutely essential, for us to enjoythe public confidence, or even the public consideration; though we canbe happy ourselves only when we are conscious of not being totallyunworthy. But no social or political concession or consideration isacceptable to a noble mind, that is grudgingly yielded or doubtinglybestowed; and the lustre of great intellects is dimmed when they becomesubservient to claims that they despise. 

But can we acquire a knowledge of things, either divine or human, unlesswe cultivate our powers of observation? Partial or inaccurateobservation, especially of natural things, is a great defect ofcharacter; and in New England, where the aim of educators and of thepublic in matters of education is elevated, a remedy for this defectought at once to be sought and applied. Our ideas are vague concerningmany subjects of common sight and common observation. Is adult life, even among the educated classes, equal to a description of the commonanimals, trees, fruits and flowers? Who will paint with words the elm orthe oak so that its species will be known while the name is withheld?The introduction of drawing into the schools will improve the power ofobservation among the people, especially if the pupils are required tomake nature their model. And this should always be done. O, how iseducation belittled and the mind dwarfed by those teachers who keeptheir pupils' thoughts upon signs and definitions, when they ought todeal continually with the facts, things and life of the world! It is nofable that a student of the higher mathematics, when his master, apractical engineer upon the Boston water-works, required his services, exclaimed, "I had no idea that you had sines and tangents out of doors. "With such, "Nothing goes for sense or light That will not with old rules jump right; As if rules were not in the schools Derived from truth, but truth from rules. "

And Butler, in his satirical description of Sir Hudibras, ascribes tohis hero more practical philosophy than he appears to have intended, andmore, certainly, than is found in some modern systems of education:

 "In mathematics he was greater Than Tycho Brahe or Erra Pater; For he, by geometric scale, Could take the size of pots of ale; Resolve by sines and tangents straight, If bread or butter wanted weight; And wisely tell what hour o' th' day The clock does strike, by algebra. "

Another prerequisite of wisdom is intellectual humility, Solomon, says, "Before honor is humility;" and humility is before wisdom, and evenbefore learning. We ought not to be ashamed of involuntary ignorance. Franklin, when asked how he came to know so much, replied, "By neverbeing ashamed to ask a question. "

It is idle for any one to imagine that there is nothing more for him tolearn. Indeed, such a theory is good evidence of defective education andlimited attainments, if not of a defective mental and moral structure. 

Naturalists delight and instruct their pupils and auditors with thewonderful truths folded in the flower, garnered in the plant, orimprisoned in the rock. Yet how much more there must be of God's wisdomin the humblest of the beings created in his image! There aredistinctions among men; and out of these distinctions come the truth andthe necessity that each may be both a teacher and a pupil of everyother. No man, however learned he may be, does know or can know all thatis known by his neighbor, though that neighbor be the humblest ofshepherds or of fishermen. We are not independent of each other inanything. The earnest and faithful disciple of wisdom goes through lifeeverywhere diffusing knowledge, and everywhere gathering it up. Over thegreat gateway of life is the inscription, "None but learners enterhere;" and along its paths and in its groves are tablets, on which iswritten, "None but learners sojourn here. " He is a poor teacher who isnot a learner, and he is but little of a learner who is not something ofa teacher also. The best teachers are they who are pupils, and the bestpupils are already teachers. Such was the real and avowed character ofthe great teachers of antiquity; such is the best practice of moderncontinental Europe, and such is the requirement of nature in all ages. He who does not learn cannot teach. Socrates professed to know onlythis, that he knew nothing. Plato was a disciple of Socrates andEuclid; a pupil in the school of Pythagoras; and, as a traveller, underthe disguise of a merchant and a seller of oil, he visited Egypt, andthus gained a knowledge of astronomy, and added something to hislearning in other departments. He numbered among his pupils Isocrates, Lycurgus, Aristotle, and Demosthenes; and for eight years Alexander theGreat was the pupil of Aristotle, while Demosthenes

 "Wielded at will that fierce Democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne. "

Thus we trace Demosthenes and Alexander, the master spirits in thestruggle of Grecian independence against Macedonian supremacy, throughteachers and culture up to Socrates, the wanderer in the streets, andthe disturber of the peace of Athens. 

It is stated that a distinguished modern philosopher often says, "Idon't know, " when the curiosity or science of his pupils suggestsquestions that he has not considered. If we respect and admire thewisdom of the wise, how ought we to be humbled, intellectually, by thereflection that the unknown far exceeds the known, and that all becomeas little children when they enter the temple of the sages! Theancients prized schools, teachers, and learning, because they wereessential to wisdom; and wisdom enabled them to live temperately, justly, and happily, in the present world; while we prize schools, teachers, and learning, because they contribute to what we call successin life. The population of New England, is composed of skilful artisans, intelligent merchants, shrewd or eloquent lawyers, industrious andintelligent farmers; and to these results our system of education is tooexclusively subservient. These results are not to be condemned, nor arethe processes by which they are secured to be neglected. But our schoolsought to do something always and for every one, for the full developmentof a character that is essential to artisans, merchants, lawyers, orfarmers. Learning should not be prized merely as an aid to the dailywork of life, --though this it properly is and ever ought to be, --but forits expansive power in the mind and soul, by which we attain to a moreperfect knowledge of things human and divine. There are many persons whoaccomplish satisfactorily the tasks assigned them, but who do not alwayscomprehend the processes of life, in its political, social, literary, scientific and industrial relations, by which the affairs of the worldare guided. 

Something of this is due, speaking of America, and especially of NewEngland, to the universal desire to be engaged in active business. Youngmen destined for the farm or the shop, the counting-house or the store, leave home and school so early that their apprenticeship is ended longbefore their majority commences; and they are thus prepared to enterearly and vigorously upon the business of life. This course has itsadvantages, and it is also attended by many evils. Our youth have butlittle opportunity for observation, and a great deal of time forexperience. They fall into mistakes that should have been observed, andconsequently shunned. Moreover, this custom tends to make business mentoo exclusively and rigidly technical and professional; that is, inplain language, speaking relatively, they know too much of their ownvocation, and too little of everything else. Business life follows soclosely upon home life and school life, that the lessons of the latterfail to exert an immediate and controlling influence, and it is oftenonly in maturer years that the fruits of early training are seen. Theconnection is such that the boy or youth becomes a devotee of businessbefore he is developed into complete manhood. This is movement, but nottrue progress; activity, but not culture; appropriation andaccumulation, but not natural development. This peculiarity is lessprominent in England, and it is hardly known in the central states ofEurope. It is to some extent a national, and especially is it a NewEngland characteristic. It is a manifestation of the forward movingspirit of our people, and it is also at once a promise and the securityfor the ultimate supremacy of the American race and nation in theaffairs of the world. In Athens young men attained their majority whenthey were sixteen; but they usually prosecuted their studies afterwards, and Aristotle thought them unfit for marriage until they werethirty-seven years of age. This rule was observed by Aristotle in hisown case; but we are unable to say whether the rule was made before orafter his marriage, which is a fact of much importance when we considerthe wisdom of the precept, and the real principles and philosophy of itsfamous author. Moreover, regardless of one-half of creation, he hasneither stated the age at which females are marriageable, nor given usthat of his own wife. This neglect justly detracts from his authority;and it will not be strange if young men and women view with distrust anopinion that is so manifestly partial and one-sided. If schools makemerely learned people, in a narrow and technical sense, they are notdoing their whole work. Such learning makes an efficient population, which is certainly desirable; but it ought also to be a well-educatedpopulation in a broad, comprehensive, philosophic sense. By the force ofnature and the developing influences of society, including the church, the school, and the home, we ought first to be educated men and women, and then apply that education to the particular work we have in hand. Bylearning, in this connection, I do not mean the learning of Agassiz as anaturalist, the learning of Choate as a lawyer, or the learning ofEverett as an orator; but a more general and less minute culture, bywhich men are prepared to form an accurate judgment upon subjects thatusually attract public attention. 

In the gardens of the wealthy, we often see peach-trees and pear-treestrained against brick or stone walls, to which they are attached bysubstantial thongs. These trees are carefully and systematicallytrained, and they are trained so as to accomplish certain results. Theypresent a large surface, in proportion to the whole, to the sun and air;in addition to the direct rays of the sun, they receive the reflectedand accumulated heat of the walls to which they are fastened; and theyfurnish ripe fruit much in advance of trees in the gardens and fields ofthe common farmers. Here art and nature, in brick walls, manure, thegerminating power of the peach or pear, and rigid training and pruning, have produced very good machines for the manufacture of fruit; but forthe full-grown, symmetrically developed tree, or even for the choicestfruit in its season, we must look elsewhere. And who does not perceive, if all the trees of the gardens, fields, and forests, were treated inthe same way, that the world would be deprived of a part of its beautyand glory, and that many species of trees would soon become extinct? Whowould not give back the luscious pear and peach to their nativeacritude, rather than subject the highest forms of vegetable life tosuch irreverence? And, upon reflection, we shall say that such crueltyto inanimate life can be justified only as we justify the naturalist whodexterously and suddenly extracts a vital organ from a reptile, that hemay observe the effect upon that form of animal existence. 

But the tree is not to be left in its native state. By culture itsgrowth is so aided, that it is first and always a tree after its ownkind, whether it be peach, pear, apple, elm, or oak; at once ornamentaland graceful, stately or majestic, according to the germinatingprinciple which diffuses itself through each individual creation. "Forthe earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then theear, after that the full corn in the ear. " So in the human heart, mind, and soul, nature bringeth forth fruit of herself; and it is the work ofschools and teachers to aid nature in developing a full and attractivecharacter, that shall yield fruit while all its powers are enlarged andstrengthened, as the almond in the peach is not only more luscious inits fruit, but more graceful in its branches. Culture, in a broad sense, is the aid rendered to each individual creation in its work ofself-improvement. It is not a noble and generous culture which dwarfsthe tree that early ripened or peculiarly flavored fruit may beobtained; and it is not a noble and generous culture of the child whichforces into unnatural activity certain faculties or powers that surpriseus by their precocity, or excite wonder by the skill exhibited in theiruse. Rather let the child grow, expand, mature, according to the law ofits own being, giving it only encouragement and example, which are thelight and air of mental and moral life. I am not conscious that any onehas given us a philosophical, logical system of development, thatrelates to the physical, intellectual, and moral character; and to-day Istate the educational want in this particular, but I do not attempt tosupply it. Yet in nature such a system there must be, and only powers ofobservation are needed that we may avail ourselves of it. And in statingthis want more particularly, I offer, as my first suggestion, theopinion, common among educators, that, speaking generally and withreference to a system, we have no physical training whatever. 

In the days of our ancestors, one hundred or two hundred years ago, thistraining, as a part of a system of education, was not needed. We had nocities, and but few large towns. Agriculture and the ruder forms ofmechanical labor were the chief occupations of the people. Populouscities, narrow streets, dark lanes, cellar habitations, crowdedworkshops, over-filled and over-heated factories, and the number ofsedentary pursuits that tax and wear and destroy the physical powers, and undermine the moral and mental, were unknown. These are theattendants of our civilization, and they have brought a melancholy trainof evils with them. In the seventeenth century, men perished fromexposure, from ignorance of the laws of health, from the prevalence ofmalignant diseases that defied the science of the times; and, as aconsequence, the average length of human life was not greater than itnow is. At present, there is but little exposure that is followed byfatal results; malignant diseases are deprived of many of their terrors;rules of living, founded upon scientific principles, are accessible toall; and yet we daily meet young men and women who are manifestlyunequal to the lot that is before them. In some cases, the sin of theparent is visited upon the children, and the measure of life meted outto them is limited and insufficient. In other cases, the individuals, first yielding in their own persons, are the victims of positive vice, or of some of the evils stated. Civilization is not an unmixed good; andwe cannot offer to the city or the factory any adequate compensation forthe loss of pure water, pure air, and the healthful exercise of body, which may be enjoyed in the country villages and agricultural districtsof the state. 

Yet even in cities and large towns the culture of home and school shoulddiminish these evils; and it is a pleasure to believe that our system ofdomestic and public education is doing something at the present momentin behalf of the too much neglected body; but nowhere, either in city orcountry, do we observe the evidences of juvenile health and strengththat a friend of the race would desire to see. And it is, I fear, specially true of schools, and to some extent it is true of teachers, asa class, that too little attention is given to those exercises andhabits which secure good health. There are many causes which tend tolower the average health and strength of our people. 1st. The practiceof sending children to school at the tender age of five, four, or eventhree years. Every school necessarily imposes some restraint upon thepupils; and I assume that no child under five years of age should besubject to such restraints. But the education of the child is not, therefore, to be neglected. Parents, brothers and sisters, may all dosomething for the young inquirer; but he should never have lessonsimposed, nor be subject to the rules of a school of any description. Themoment of his admission must be determined by circumstances, and theforce of the circumstances must be judged of by parents. If a child isblessed with kind, considerate, intelligent parents, the first eightyears of his life can be spent nowhere else as profitably as at home. The true mother is the model teacher. No other person can ever acquirethe control over her off-spring that is her own rightful possession. When she neglects the trust confided to her, she is guilty of a seriouswrong; and when she transfers it to another, she takes upon herself agreater responsibility than she yields up. The instinctive judgment ofthe world cannot be an erroneous judgment. The mother has always, to agreat extent, been made responsible for the child; and the honor of hisvirtues or the disgrace of his crimes has been traced through him toher. 

2dly. Some portion of every school-day should be systematically andstrictly devoted to recreation, physical exercise and manual labor; andthe hours given to study ought to be defined and limited. Some personssay, "Let a child study as much as he will, there is time enough toplay. " This may be generally true, but it is not universally so. Icannot but think that the practice of assigning lessons and giving thepupil the free use of the four-and-twenty hours is a bad practice. Wouldit not be better to give to each pupil certain hours for study?--assignhim lessons, by topics if possible, allow him to do what he can in theallotted time, and then prohibit the appropriation of an additionalminute? Why should a dull scholar, or one who has but little taste ortalent for a given study, be required to plod twelve, sixteen, oreighteen hours at unwelcome tasks, while another more favored disposesof his work in six? Why should a pupil, who is laboring under somemental or physical debility, be required to apply his mind unceasinglywhen he most needs rest and recreation? Why should the pages of aspelling-book, grammar, geography, or arithmetic, be the measure of eachpupil's capacity? Lessons are to be assigned, not necessarily to bemastered by the pupil, though they should have just reference to hiscapacity, but as the subject of his studies for a given period of time. The pupil should be responsible for nothing but the proper use of thattime. Two advantages might result from this practice. First, the pupilwould acquire the habit of performing the greatest amount of laborpossible in the given time; and, secondly, he would naturally throw offall care for books and school when the hour for relaxation arrived. Ifparticular studies are assigned to specified hours, the pupil mustmaster his thoughts, and give them the required direction. This initself is a great achievement. I put it, in practical value, before anyof the studies that are taught and learned in the schools. The danger towhich pupils are often exposed, in this connection, is quite apparent. Alesson is assigned for a succeeding day. The attention is notimmediately fixed upon it. One hour passes, and then another. Nothing isaccomplished, yet the pupil is continually oppressed by theconsciousness of duty unperformed, and the result is, that he neitherdoes what he ought to do, nor does anything else. Would it not be betterto measure and assign his time, and then require him to abandon allthought of the matter? This practice might give our people the facultyand the habit of throwing off cares and occupations, when they leave thescenes of them. It is a just criticism upon American character, that ourbusiness men carry their occupations with them wherever they go. Ishould put high up among the elements of worldly success the ability togive assiduously, studiously and devotedly, the necessary time to asubject of business, and then to throw off all thought of it. There canbe no peace of mind for the business man who does not possess thisquality; and I think it will contribute essentially to a long life and aquiet old age. No wise man ever attempts more than one thing at a time;and the man who attempts to do more than one thing at a time has nosecurity that he can do anything well. The statements of biography andhistory, that Napoleon was accustomed to do several things at once, restupon a misconception of the operations of the human mind. His facilityfor the direction and transaction of business depended upon the qualityI am now considering. He had the faculty of giving his attention, undivided and strongly fixed, to a subject for an hour, half-hour, minute, half-minute, or second, and then of dismissing the matteraltogether, and directing his thoughts, without loss of time, towhatever next might be presented. One thing at a time is a law which nofinite power can violate; and ability in execution depends upon theability to concentrate all the powers of the mind, at a given moment, upon the assigned topic, and then to change, without friction or loss oftime, to something else. 

The institution is a high school, and the question is now agitated, especially in the State of Connecticut, "How can the advantages of ahigh school education be best secured?" This question I propose toconsider. And, first, the high school must be a public school. A _publicschool_ I understand to be a school established by thepublic, --supported chiefly or entirely by the public, controlled by thepublic, and accessible to the public upon terms of equality withoutspecial charge for tuition. 

Private schools may be established and controlled by an individual, orby an association of individuals, who have no corporate rights under thegovernment, but receive pupils upon terms agreed upon, subject to theordinary laws of the land. 

Private schools may be founded also by one or more persons, and by themendowed with funds, for their partial or entire support. In such cases, the founder, through the money given, has the right to prescribe therules by which the school shall be controlled, and also to provide forthe appointment of its managers or trustees through all time. In suchcases, corporate powers are usually granted by the government for themanagement of the business. But the chief rights of such an institutionare derived from the founder, and the facilities for their easy exerciseand quiet enjoyment are derived from the state. 

Such schools are sometimes, upon a superficial view, supposed to bepublic, because they receive pupils upon terms of equality, and no ruleof exclusion exists which does not apply to all. And especially has itbeen assumed that a free school thus founded, as the Norwich FreeAcademy, which makes no charges for tuition, and is open to all theinhabitants of the city, is therefore a public school. Theseinstitutions are public in their use, but not in their foundation orcontrol, and are therefore not public schools. The character of aschool, as of any eleemosynary institution, is derived from the will ofthe founder; and when the beneficial founder is an individual, or anumber of individuals less than the whole political organization ofwhich the individuals are a part, the institution is private, whateverthe rules for its enjoyment may be. To say that a school is a publicschool because it receives pupils free of charge for tuition, or becauseit receives them upon conditions that are applied alike to all, is todeny that there are any private schools, for all come within thedefinition thus laid down. 

Nor is there any good reasoning in the statement that a school is publicbecause it receives pupils from a large extent of country. DartmouthCollege is a private school, though its pupils come from all the land orall the world; while the Boston Latin School is a public school; thoughit receives those pupils only whose homes are within the limits of thecity. The first is a private school, because it was founded by PresidentWheelock, and has been controlled by him and his successors, holding andgoverning and enjoying through him, from the first until now; while theBoston Latin School is a public school, because it was established bythe city of Boston, through the votes of its inhabitants, under the lawsof the state, and is at all times subject, in its government andexistence, to the popular will which created it. When we speak of thepublic we do not necessarily mean the world, nor the nation, nor eventhe state; but the word _public_, in a legal sense, may stand for anylegal political organization, territorially defined, and intrusted inany degree with the administration of its own affairs. And the publiccharacter of a particular school, as the Boston Latin School, forexample, may be determined, by a process of reasoning quite independentof that already presented. The State of Massachusetts, a completesovereignty in itself, has provided by her constitution and laws, whichare the expressed judgment of her people, for the establishment of asystem of public schools, through the agency and action of therespective cities and towns of the commonwealth. These towns and cities, under the laws, set up the schools; and of course each school partakesof the public character which the action of the state, followed by thecorporate public action of the city or town, has given to it. Thus it isseen that our public schools answer to the requirement already stated. They are established by the public, supported chiefly or entirely by thepublic, controlled by the public, and accessible to the public uponterms of equality, without special charge for tuition. Nor is the publiccharacter of a school changed by the fact that private citizens may havecontributed to its maintenance, if such contributors do not assume tostand in the relation of founders. It is well understood that thebeneficial founder of a school is he who makes the first gift or bequestto it, and the legal founder is the government which grants a charter, or in any way confers upon it a corporate existence. If a town establisha high school, as in Bernardston to-day, and accept a gift or bequest, the character of the school is not changed thereby. Mr. Powers did notattempt to establish a new school. He gave the income of ten thousanddollars for the aid of schools then existing, and for the aid of aschool whose existence was already contemplated by the laws of thestate. No change has been wrought in your institutions; they are stillpublic, --your generous testator has only contributed to their support. And, in considering yet further the question, "How can the advantagesof a high-school education be best secured?" I shall proceed to compare, with what brevity I can command, the public high school with the freehigh school or academy upon a private foundation. My reasoning isgeneral, and the argument does not apply to all the circumstances ofsociety. It is not everywhere possible to establish a public highschool. In some cases the population may not be sufficient, in othersthere may not be adequate wealth, and in others there may not be anelevated public sentiment equal to the emergency. In such circumstances, those who desire education must obtain it in the best manner possible;and academies, whether free or not, and private schools, whether endowedor not, should be thankfully accepted and encouraged. Nor will highschools meet all the wants of society. There must always be a place forclassical schools, scientific schools, professional schools, which, intheir respective courses of study, either anticipate or follow, in thecareer of the student, his four years of college life. With theseconditions and limitations stated, the point I seek to establish is thata public high school can do the work usually done in such institutionsmore faithfully, thoroughly, and economically, than it can be doneanywhere else. 

1st. The supervision of the public school is more responsible, andconsequently more perfect. In private schools, academies and free highschools which are endowed, there is a board of trustees, who perpetuate, as a corporation, their own existence. Each member is elected for life, and he is not only not responsible to the public, but he is not evenresponsible, except in extraordinary cases, to his associates. Responsibility is, in all governments, the security taken for fidelity. The election of representatives, in the state or national legislature, for life, would be esteemed a great and dangerous innovation. 

It maybe said that boards of trustees are usually better qualified tomanage a school than the committees elected by the respective cities andtowns. Judged as individuals, this is probably true; though upon thispoint I prefer to admit a claim rather than to express an opinion. Butpositively incompetent school committees are the exception inMassachusetts; usually the people make the selection from their bestmen. But in the public school you get the immediate, direct supervisionof the public. Not merely in the election of committees, but in a dailyinterest and vigilance whose results are freely disclosed to thesuperintending committee, as every inhabitant feels that hiscontribution, as a tax-payer, gives him the right to judge the characterof the school, and makes it his duty to report its defects to thosecharged with its management. The real defects of a school, especially ofa high school, will be first discovered by pupils; and they are likelyto report these defects to their parents. In the case of the endowedprivate school, the parent feels that he buys whatever the trustees haveto sell, or takes as a gift whatever they have to offer free; and hedoes not, logically nor as a matter of fact, infer from either of theserelations his right to participate in the government of the school. Inone case you have the observation, the judgment, the supervision, of thewhole community; in the other case you have the learning and judgment offive, seven, ten, or twelve men. 

2dly. The faithfulness of the teacher is very much dependent upon thesupervision to which he is subject. This is only saying that the teacheris human. In the public school there is no motive which can influence areasonable man that would lead him to swerve in the least from hisfidelity to the interest of the school as a whole. No partiality to aparticular individual, no desire to promulgate a special idea, can everstand in the place of that public support which is best secured by ajust performance of his duties. In the private school, with aself-perpetuating board of trustees, the temptation is strong to makethe organization subservient to some opinion in politics, religion, orsocial life. This may not always be done; but in many cases it has beendone, and there is no reason to expect different things in the future. Iconcur, then, unreservedly in the judgment which has placed thisinstitution, in all its interests and in all its duties, under thecontrol of the inhabitants of Bernardston. When they who live in itslight and enjoy its benefits cease to respect it, when they to whom itis specially dedicated cease to love and cherish it, it will no longerbe entitled to the favorable consideration of a more extended publicsentiment. As all trustworthy national patriotism must be built on lovefor state, town, and home, so every school ought to esteem its power forusefulness in its own neighborhood its chief means of good. 

It will naturally be inferred, from the remarks made upon the singlenessof purpose and fidelity of the public school to the cause of education, that the instruction given in it is more thorough than is usually givenin the private school. But, in examining yet further the claim of thepublic school to superior thoroughness, I must assume that it enjoys theadvantages of comfortable rooms, adequate apparatus and competentteachers. And this assumption ought to be supported by the facts. Thereis no good reason why any town in Massachusetts should be negligent orparsimonious in these particulars. True economy requires liberalappropriations. With these appropriations, the best teachers, even fromprivate schools and academies, can be secured, and all the aids andencouragements to liberal culture can be provided. Is it possible thatany of the means of a common-school education are necessarily denied toa million and a quarter of industrious people, who already possess anaggregate capital of seven or eight hundred millions of dollars? But thecharacter of a high school must always depend materially upon theprevious training of the pupils, and the qualifications required foradmission. When the high school is a public school, the studies of theprimary and grammar or district schools are arranged with regard to thesystem as a system. There is no inducement to admit a pupil for the sakeof the tuition fees, or for the purpose of adding to the number ofscholars. The applicant is judged by his merits as a scholar; and wherethere is a wise public sentiment, the committee will be sustained in theexecution of just rules. 

In the public high school we avoid a difficulty that is almost universalin academies and private schools--the presence of pupils whoseattainments are so various that by a proper classification they would beassigned to two, if not to three grades, where the graded systemexists. The vigilance, industry and fidelity of teachers, cannotovercome this evil. The instruction given is inevitably less systematicand thorough. The character which the high school, whether public orprivate, presents, is not its own character merely; it reflects thequalities and peculiarities of the schools below. It follows, then, thatthe attention of the public should be as much directed to the primaryand grammar or district schools as to the high school itself. Of course, it ought not to be assumed that the existence of a high school willwarrant any abatement of appropriations for the lower grades; indeed, the interest and resources of these schools ought continually toincrease. 

Nor can it be assumed that your contributions to the cause of educationwill be diminished by the bequest of your generous testator. He did notseek to lessen your burdens, but to add to the means of education amongyou. 

There is also an inherent power of discipline in the public schools, where they are graded and a system of examinations exists, that is notfound elsewhere. Neither the pupil nor the parent is viewed by theteacher in the light of a patron; hence, he seeks only to so conduct hisschool as to meet the public requirement. Moreover, as admission to ahigh school can be secured by merit only, the results of thepreliminary training must have been such as to create a reasonablepresumption in favor of the applicant, mentally and morally. Hence, thepublic schools are filled by youth who are there as the reward ofindividual, personal merit. Practically, the motive by which the pupilsare animated has much to do with their success. If they are moved by alove for learning, they attain the object of their desires even withoutthe aid of teachers; but where they are aided and encouraged by faithfulteachers, the school is soon under the control of a public sentimentwhich secures the end in view. 

This public sentiment is not as easily built up in a private school;for, in the nature of things, some pupils will find their way there whoare not true disciples of learning; and such persons are obstacles togeneral progress, while they advance but little themselves. 

And, gentlemen trustees and citizens of Bernardston, may I notpersonally and especially invite you to consider the importance of afixed standard of admission and a careful examination of candidates?This course is essential to the improvement of your district and villageschools. It is essential to the true prosperity of this seminary, and itis also essential to the intellectual advancement of the people withinyour influence. You expect pupils from the neighboring towns. Yourobject is not pecuniary profit, but the education of the people. If yourrequirements are positive, though it may not be difficult to meet themin the beginning, every town that depends upon this institution forbetter learning than it can furnish at home will be compelled tomaintain schools of a high order. On the other hand, negligence in thisparticular will not only degrade the school under your care here, butthe schools in this town and the cause of education in the vicinity willbe unfavorably affected. Nor let the objection that a rigid standard ofqualifications will exclude many pupils, and diminish the attendanceupon the school, have great weight; for you perform but half your dutywhen you provide the means of a good education for your own students. You are also, through the power inherent in this authority, to dosomething to elevate the standard of learning in other schools, and inthe country around. What harm if this school be small, while by itsinfluence other schools are made better, and thus every boy and girl inthe vicinity has richer means of education than could otherwise havebeen secured? Thus will tens, and hundreds, and thousands, of successivegenerations, have cause to bless this school, though they may never havesat under its teachers, or been within its walls. 

In a system of public schools, everything may be had at its prime cost. There need be no waste of money, or of the time or power of teachers. Asthe public system must everywhere exist, it is a matter of economy tobring all the children under its influence. The private system never caneducate all; therefore the public system cannot be abandoned, unless weconsent to give up a part of the population to ignorance. It may, then, be said that the private schools, essential in many cases, ought to giveway whenever the public schools are prepared to do the work; and whenthe public schools are so prepared, the existence of private schoolsadds their own cost to the necessary cost of popular education. 

But we are not to encourage parsimony in education; for parsimony inthis department is not true economy. It is true economy for the stateand for a town to set up and maintain good schools as cheaply as theycan be had, yet at any necessary cost, so only that they be good. Massachusetts is prosperous and wealthy to-day, respected in evil reportas well as in good, because, faithful to principle and persistent incourage, she has for more than two hundred years provided for theeducation of her children; and now the re-flowing tide of her wealthfrom seaboard and cities will bear on its wave to these quiet valleysand pleasant hill-sides the lovers of agriculture, friends of art, students of science, and such as worship rural scenes and indulge inrural sports; but the favored and first-sought spots will be those wherelearning has already chosen her seat, and offers to manhood and age theculture and society which learning only can give, and to childhood andyouth, over and above the training of the best schools, healthful moralinfluences, and elements of physical growth and vigor, which everdistinguish life in the country and among the mountains from life in thecity or on the plain. And over a broader field and upon a larger sphereshall the benignant influence of this system of public instruction befelt. In the affairs of this great republic, the power of a state is notto be measured by the number of its votes in Congress. Public opinion ismightier than Congress; and they who wield or control that do, inreality, bear rule. Power in the world, upon a large view, and in thelight of history, has not been confided to the majorities of men. Greece, unimportant in extent of territory, a peninsula and archipelagoin the sea, led the way in the civilization of the west, and, throughher eloquence, poetry, history and art, became the model of modernculture. Rome, a single city in Italy, that stretches itself into thesea as though it would gaze upon three continents, subjugated to hersway the savage and civilized world, and impressed her arms andjurisprudence upon all succeeding times; then Venice, without a singlefoot of solid land, guarded inviolate the treasure of her sovereigntyfor thirteen hundred years against the armies of the East and the West;while, in our own time, England, unimportant in the extent of herinsular territory, has been able, by the intelligence and enterprise ofher people, to make herself mistress of the seas, arbiter of thefortunes of Europe, and the ruler of a hundred millions of people inAsia. 

These things have happened in obedience to a law which knows no change. Power in America is with those who can bring the greatest intellectualand moral force to bear upon a given point. And Massachusetts, limitedin the extent of her territory, without salubrity of climate, fertilityof soil, or wealth of mines, will have influence, through her people athome and her people abroad, proportionate to her fidelity to the causeof universal public education. 

NORMAL SCHOOL TRAINING. 

[An Address delivered at the Dedication of the State Normal School, atSalem. ]

The human race may be divided into two classes. One has no ideal of afuture different from the present; or, if it is not always satisfiedwith this view, it has yet had no clear conception of a higherexistence. 

The other class is conscious of the power of progress, is makingcontinual advances, and has an ideal of a future such as, in itsjudgment, the present ought to be. Both of these classes haveinstitutions; for institutions are not the product of civilization, asthey exist wherever our social nature is developed. Man is also adependent being, and he therefore seeks the company, counsel and supportof his fellows. From the right of numbers to act comes the necessity ofagreement, or at least so much concurrence in what is to be done as tosecure the object sought. The will of numbers can only be expressedthrough agencies; and these, however simple, are indeedinstitutions--the evidence of civilization, rather than its product. They are always the sign, symbol, or language, by which the living manexpresses the purpose of his life. Therefore, institutions differ, asthe purposes of men vary. 

The savage and the man of culture do not seek the same end; hence theywill not employ the same means. 

The institutions of the savage are those of the family, clan, or tribe, to which he belongs. There the child is instructed in the art of dress, in manners and language, in the rude customs of agriculture, the chase, and war. This with him is life, and the history of one generation isoften the history of many generations. Their ideal corresponds withtheir actual life; and, as a necessary result, there is little or noprogress. 

But the other class establishes institutions which indicate theexistence of new relations, and exact the performance of new duties. Asman is a social being, he necessarily creates institutions of governmentand education corresponding to the sphere in which he is to act. If anation desires to educate only a part of its people, its institutionsare naturally exclusive; but wherever the idea of universal educationhas been received, the institutions of the country look to that end. 

When Massachusetts was settled there were no truly popular institutionsin the world, for there was really no belief in popular rights. And whyshould those be encouraged to think who have no right to act? Theprinciple that every man is to take a part in the affairs of thecommunity or state to which he belongs seems to be the foundation of thedoctrine that every man should be educated to think for himself. Freeschools and general education are the natural results of the principlesof human equality, which distinguish the people and political systems ofAmerica. 

The purposes of a people are changeable and changing, but institutionsare inflexible; therefore these latter often outlast the ideas in whichthey originated, or the ideas may be acting in other bodies or forms. Institutions are the visible forms of ideas, but they are useful onlywhile those ideas are living in the minds of men. If an institution issuffered to remain after the idea has passed away, it embarrasses ratherthan aids an advancing people. Such are monastic establishments inProtestant countries; such is the Church of England, as an institutionof religion and government, to all classes of dissenters; such are manyseminaries of learning in Europe, and some in America. 

Massachusetts has had one living idea, from the first, --that generalintelligence is necessary to popular virtue and liberty. This idea shehas expressed in various ways; the end it promises she has sought byvarious means. In obedience to this idea, she has established colleges, common schools, grammar schools, academies, and at last the NormalSchool. 

The _institution_ only of the Normal School is new; the _idea_ is old. The Normal system is but a better expression of an idea partiallyconcealed, but nevertheless to be found in the college, grammar schooland academy of our fathers. Nor have we accepted the institution soreadily from a knowledge of its results in other countries, as from itsmanifest fitness to meet a want here. It is not, then, our fortune toinaugurate a new idea, but only to clothe an old one again, so that itmay more efficiently advance popular liberty, intelligence and virtue. And this is our duty to-day. 

The proprieties of this occasion would have been better observed, hadhis excellency, Governor Washburn, found it convenient to deliver theaddress, which, at a late moment, has been assigned to me. But we areall in some degree aware of the nature and extent of his public duties, and can, therefore, appreciate the necessity which demands relief fromsome of them. 

Massachusetts has founded four Normal Schools, and at the close of thepresent century she may not have established as many more, for she nowsatisfies the just demands of every section of her territory, andpresents the benefits of this system of instruction to all herinhabitants. The building we here set apart, and the school we nowinaugurate to the service of learning, are to be regarded as thecompletion of the original plan of the state, and any future extensionwill depend upon the success of the Normal system as it shall appear inother years to other generations of men. But we have great faith thatthe Normal system, in itself and in its connections, will realize thecherished idea of our whole history; and if so, it will be extendeduntil every school is supplied with a Normal teacher. 

This, then, is an occasion of general interest; but to the city ofSalem, and the county of Essex, it is specially important. Similarinstitutions have been long established in other parts of the state; butsome compensation is now to be made to you, in the experience andimprovements of the last fifteen years. Intelligent labor sheds lightupon the path of the laborer, and, though the direct benefits of thissystem have not been here enjoyed, many resulting advantages from theexperience of similar institutions in other places will now inure toyou. 

The city of Salem, with wise forecast, anticipated these advantages, andgenerously contributed a sum larger even than that appropriated by thestate itself. This bounty determined the location of the school, butdetermined it fortunately for all concerned. 

Salem is one of the central points of the state; and in this respect noother town in the vicinity, however well situated, is a competitor. Pupils may reside at their homes in Newburyport, Lynn, Lawrence, Haverhill, Gloucester and Lowell, or at any intermediate place, andenjoy the benefit of daily instruction within these walls. This is agreat privilege for parents and pupils; and it could not have been sowell secured at any other point. Here, also, pupils and teachers mayavail themselves of the libraries, literary institutions and cabinets ofthis ancient and prosperous town. These are no common advantages. 

We are wiser and better for the presence of great numbers of books, though we may never know what they contain. We see how much perseveranceand labor have accomplished, and are sensible that what has been may beequalled if not excelled. In great libraries, we realize how the worksof the ambitious are neglected, and their names forgotten, while wecannot fail to be impressed with the value of the truth, that the onlylabor which brings a certain reward is that performed under a sense ofduty. 

Salem is itself the intelligent and refined centre of an intelligent andprosperous population; and we may venture so far, in just eulogy, as toattribute to it the united advantages of city and country, without alarge share of the privations of the one, or the vices of the other. Ofthe four Normal Schools, this is, unquestionably, the most fortunate inits position and surroundings. We, therefore, ask for the concurrence ofthe public in the judgment which has established it in this city. If itshall be the fortune of the government to assemble a body of instructorsqualified for their stations, there will then remain no reason why theseaccommodations and advantages should not be fully enjoyed. 

The Normal School differs from all other seminaries of learning, andonly because it is an auxiliary to the common schools can it be deemedtheir inferior in importance. The academy and college take young menfrom the district and high schools, and furnish them with additionalaids for the business of life; but the Normal School is truly the helperof the common schools. It receives its pupils from them, fits thesepupils for teachers, and sends them back to superintend where a fewmonths before they were scholars. The Normal Schools are sustained bythe common schools; and these latter, in return, draw their bestnutriment from the former. This institution stands with the commonschool; it is as truly popular, as really democratic in a just sense, and its claim for support rests upon the same foundation. 

In Massachusetts we have abandoned the idea, never, I think, general, that instruction in the art of teaching is unnecessary. 

The Normal School is, with us, a necessity; for it furnishes thattuition which neither the common school, academy, nor college can. Theseinstitutions were once better adapted to this service than now. Therehas been a continual increase of academic studies, until it has becomenecessary to establish institutions for special purposes; and of thesethe Normal School is one. Its object is definite. The _true_ NormalSchool instructs only in the art of teaching; and, in this respect, itmust be confessed we have failed, sadly failed, to realize the ideal ofthe system. It is not a substitute for the common school, academy, orcollege, though many pupils, and in some degree the public, have beeninclined thus to treat it. There should be no instruction in thedepartments of learning, high or low, except what is incidental to themain business of the institution; yet some have gone so far in the wrongcourse as to suggest that not only the common branches should bestudied, but that tuition should be given in the languages and thehigher mathematics. A little reflection will satisfy us how great adeparture this would be from the just idea of the Normal School. Yetcircumstances, rather than public sentiment, have compelled thegovernment to depart in practice, though never in theory, from the truesystem. 

It so happens that much time is occupied in instruction in thosebranches which ought to be thoroughly mastered by the pupil before heenters the Normal School, --that is, before he begins to acquire the artof teaching what he has not himself learned. 

Such is the state of our schools that we are obliged to accept as pupilsthose who are not qualified, in a literary point of view, for the postof teachers. By sending better teachers into the public schools, youwill effectually aid in the removal of this difficulty. The NormalSchool is, then, no substitute for the high school, academy, or college. Nor do we ask for any sympathy or aid which properly belongs to thoseinstitutions. He is no friend of education, in its proper signification, who patronizes some one institution, and neglects all others. We have noseminaries of learning which can be considered useless, and he only is atrue friend who aids and encourages any and all as he has opportunity. What is popularly known as learning is to be acquired in the commonschool, high school, academy and college, as heretofore. The NormalSchool does not profess to give instruction in reading and arithmetic, but to teach the art of teaching reading and arithmetic. So of all theelementary branches. But, as the art of teaching a subject cannot beacquired without at the same time acquiring a better knowledge of thesubject itself, the pupil will always leave the Normal School bettergrounded than ever before in the elements and principles of learning. Itis not, however, to be expected that complete success will be realizedhere more than elsewhere; yet it is well to elevate the standard ofadmission, from time to time, so that a larger part of the exercises maybe devoted to the main purpose of the institution. The struggle shouldbe perpetual and in the right direction. First, elevate your commonschools so that the education there may be a sufficient basis for acourse of training here. If the Normal School and the public schoolsshall each and all do their duty, candidates for admission will be sowell qualified in the branches required, that the art of teaching willbe the only art taught here. When this is the case, the time ofattendance will be diminished, and a much larger number of persons maybe annually qualified for the station of teachers. 

Next, let the committees and others interested in education makespecial efforts to fill the chairs of your hall with young women ofpromise, who are likely to devote themselves to the profession. It is, however, impossible for human wisdom to guard against one fate thathappens to all, or nearly all, the young women who are graduated at ourNormal Schools. But this remark is not made publicly, lest some anxiousones avail themselves of your bounty as a means to an end notcontemplated by the state. 

The house you have erected is not so much dedicated to the school as tothe public; the institution here set up is not so much for the benefitof the young women who may become pupils, as for the benefit of thepublic which they represent. The appeal is, therefore, to the public tofurnish such pupils, in number and character, that this institution maysoon and successfully enter upon the work for which it is properlydesigned. 

But the character and value of this school depend on the quality of itsteachers more than on all things else. They should be thoroughlyinstructed, not only in the branches taught, but in the art of teachingthem. 

The teacher ought to have attained much that the pupil is yet to learn;if he has not, he cannot utter words of encouragement, nor estimate thechances of success. It is not enough to know what is contained in thetext-book; the pupil should know that, at least; the teacher should knowa great deal more. A person is not qualified for the office of teacherwhen he has mastered a book; and has, in fact, no right to instructothers until he has mastered the subject. 

Text-books help us a little on the road of learning; but, by and by, whatever our pursuit or profession, we leave them behind, or elsecontent ourselves with a subordinate position. Practical men have madebook-farmers the subject of ridicule; and there is some propriety inthis; for he is not a master in his profession who has not got, as ageneral thing, out of and beyond the books which treat of it. 

Books are necessary in the school-room; but the good teacher has littleuse for them in his own hands, or as aids in his own proper work. Heshould be instructed in his subject, aside from and above the arbitraryrules of authors; and he will be, if he is himself inspired with a loveof learning. _Inspired with a love of learning!_ Whoever is, is sure ofsuccess; and whoever is not, has the best possible security for thefailure of his plans. There cannot be a good school where the love oflearning in teacher and pupil is wanting; and there cannot be a bad onewhere this spirit has control. As the master, so is the disciple; as theteacher, so is the pupil; for the spirit of the teacher will becommunicated to the scholars. There must also be habits of industry andsystem in study. We have multitudes of scholars who study occasionally, and study hard; but we need a race of students who will devotethemselves habitually, and with love, to literature and science. 

On the teachers, then, is the chief responsibility, whether the youngwomen who go out from this institution are well qualified for theirprofession or not. The study of technicalities is drudgery of the worstsort to the mere pupil; but the scholar looks upon it as a preparationfor a wide and noble exercise of his intellectual powers--as a key tounlock the mysteries of learning. It is the business of the teacher tolighten the labors of to-day by bright visions of to-morrow. 

There is a school in medicine, whose chief claim is, that it invites andprepares Nature to act in the removal of disease. 

We pass no judgment upon this claim; but he is, no doubt, the bestteacher who does little for his pupils, while he incites and encouragesthem to do much for themselves. Extensive knowledge will enable theteacher to do this. 

He is a poor instructor of mathematics who sees only the dry details ofrules, tables and problems, and never ascends to the contemplation ofthose supreme wonders of the universe which mathematical astronomy haslaid open. The grammar of a language is defined to be the art of readingand writing that language with propriety. The study of its elements isdry and uninteresting; and, while the teacher dwells with care upon themerits of the text, he should also lift the veil from that which ishidden, and lead his pupils to appreciate those riches of learning whichthe knowledge of a language may confer upon the student. 

It is useful to know the division of the globe into continents andoceans, islands and lakes, mountains and rivers--and this knowledge thetext-books contain; but it is a higher learning to understand the effectof this division upon climate, soil and natural productions--upon thecharacter and pursuits of the human race. Books are so improved thatthey may very well take the place of poor, or even ordinary teachers. 

Explanations and illustrations are numerous and appropriate, and verylittle remains for the mere text-book teacher to do. But, when theduties of teacher and the exercises of the school-room are properlyperformed, the entire range of science, business, literature and art, ispresented to the student. May it be your fortune to see education thuselevated here, and then will the same spirit be infused into the publicschools of the vicinity. 

The Massachusetts system of education is a noble tribute to freedom ofthought. The power of educating a people, which is, in fine, the chiefpower in a state, has been often, if not usually, perverted to thesupport of favored opinions in religion and government. The boastedsystem of Prussia is only a prop and ally of the existing order ofthings. In France, Napoleon makes the press, which has become incivilized countries an educator of the people, the mere instrument ofhis will. Tyrants do not hesitate to pervert schools and the press, learning and literature, to the support of tyranny. But with us thepress and the school are free; and this freedom, denied through fear inother countries, is the best evidence of the stability of ourinstitutions. It is now a hundred years since an attempt was made inMassachusetts to exercise legal censorship over the press; but weoccasionally hear of movements to make the public schools of Americasubservient to sect or party. The success of these movements would be asgreat a calamity as can ever befall a free people. Ignorance would takethe place of learning, and slavery would usurp the domain of liberty. 

No defence, excuse, or palliation, can be offered for such movements;and their triumph will safely produce all the evils which it is possiblefor an enlightened people to endure. Our system of instruction is whatit professes to be, --a public system. As sects or parties, we have noclaim whatever upon it. A man is not taxed because he is of a particularfaith in religion, or party in politics; he is not taxed because he isthe father of a family, or excused because he is not; but he contributesto the cause of education because he is a citizen, and has an interestin that general intelligence which decides questions of faith andpractice as they arise. It is for the interest of all that all shall beeducated for the various pursuits and duties of the time. The educationof children is, no doubt, first in individual duty. It is the duty ofthe parent, the duty of the friend; but, above all, it is the duty ofthe public. This duty arises from the relations of men in everycivilized state; but in a popular government it becomes a necessity. Thepeople are the source of power--the sovereign. And is it more importantin a monarchy than in a republic that the ruler be intelligent, virtuous, and in all respects qualified for his duties?

The institution here set up is an essential part of our system of publicinstruction, and, as such, it claims the public favor, sympathy andsupport. 

This is a period of excitement in all the affairs and relations of men, and America is fast becoming the central point of these activities. Theyare, no doubt, associated with many blessings, but they may also beattended by great evils. We claim for our country preëminence ineducation. This may be just, but it is also true that Americans, morethan any other people, need to be better educated than they are. Whereelse is the field of statesmanship so large, or the necessity for ablestatesmen so great?

With the single exception of Great Britain, there is no nation whoserelations are such as to require a union in rulers of the rarestpractical abilities with accurate, sound and varied learning; and thereis no nation whose people are so critical in the tests they apply totheir public agents. We need men thoroughly educated in all thedepartments of learning; to which ought to be added, travel in foreigncountries, and an intimate acquaintance with every part of our own. Suchmen we have had--such men we have now; but they will be more and moreimportant as we advance in numbers, territory and power. A correspondingculture is necessary in theology, in law, and in all the pursuits ofindustry. 

No other nation has so great a destiny. That destiny is manifest, andmay be read in the heart and purpose of the people. They seek newterritories, an increase of population, the prosperity of commerce, ofall the arts of industry, and preëminence in virtue, learning andintellectual power. And all this they can attain; for the destiny of apeople, within the limits prescribed by reason, is determined bythemselves. If, however, by conquest, annexation and absorption, weacquire new territories, and strange races and nations of men, and yetneglect education, every step will but increase our burdens and perils, and hasten our decay. 

FEMALE EDUCATION. 

[An Address before the Newburyport Female High School. ]

I accepted, without a moment's delay, the invitation of the principal ofthis school to deliver the customary address on this, the fifteenthanniversary of its establishment. My presence here in connection withpublic instruction is not a proper subject for comment by myself; but Ihave now come, allow me to say, with unusual alacrity, that we maytogether recognize the claims of an institution which furnishes theearliest evidence existing among us of a special design on the part ofthe public to provide adequate intellectual and moral training for theyoung women of the state. 

Those movements which have accomplished most for religion, liberty, andlearning, have not been sudden in their origin nor rapid in theirprogress. Christianity has been preached eighteen hundred years, yet itis not now received, even intellectually, by the larger part of thehuman race. Magna Charta is six centuries old, but its principles arenot accepted by all the nations of Europe and America; and it is not, therefore, strange that a system of public instruction, originated bythe Puritans of New England, should yet be struggling against prejudiceand error. In Asia woman is degraded, and in Europe her common conditionis that of apparent and absolute inferiority. When America was settledshe became a participator in the struggles and sufferings which awaitedthe pioneers of civilization and liberty on this continent, and she thusearned a place in family, religious, and even in public life, whichforeshowed her certain and speedy disenthrallment from the tyranny oftradition and time. Her rights with us are secure, and the anxiety andboisterous alarm exhibited by some strong-minded women, and thehorror-fringed apprehensions and prophecies of some weak-minded men, areequally unreasonable and absurd. Woman is sharing the lot of humanity, and therewith she ought to be content. Man does not remove the burden ofignorance and oppression from his sex, merely, but generally from hiskind. At least, this is the experience and promise of America. If womandoes not vote because she is woman, so and for the same reason she isnot subject to personal taxation. It is an error to suppose that votingis a privilege, and taxation, ever and always, a burden. Both areduties; and the privilege of the one and the burden of the other areonly incidental and subordinate. The human family is an aggregation offamilies; and the family, not the man nor the woman, is the unit of thestate. The civil law assumes the existence of the family relation, andits unity where it exists; hence taxation of the woman brings no revenueto the state that might not have been secured by the taxation of theman; and hence the exercise of the elective franchise by the womanbrings no additional political power; for, in the theory of the relationto which there are, in fact, but few exceptions, there is in thehousehold but one political idea, and but one agent is needed for itsexpression. The ballot is the judgment of the family; not of the man, merely, nor of the woman, nor yet, indeed, always of both, even. Thefirst smile that the father receives from the child affects everysubsequent vote in municipal concerns, and likely enough also innational affairs. From that moment forward, he judges constables, selectmen, magistrates, aldermen, mayors, school-committees, andcouncillors, with an altered judgment. The result of the election is notthe victory or defeat of the man alone; it is the triumph or prostrationof a principle or purpose with which the family is identified. 

Is it said that there is occasionally, if not frequently, a dividedjudgment in the household upon those questions that are decided by theballot? This must, of course, be granted as an exceptional condition ofdomestic life; but, for the wisest reasons of public policy, whoseavoidance by the state would be treachery to humanity, the law universalcan recognize only the general condition of things. So, and for kindredbut not equally strong reasons, the elective franchise is exercised bymen without families, and denied to those women who by the dispensationsof Divine Providence are called to preside in homes where the father'sface is seen no more. But why, in the eye of the state, shall the manstand as the head of the family, rather than the woman? Because God hasso ordained it; and no civil community has ever yet escaped from theforce of His decree in this respect. Those whose physical power defendsthe nation, or tribe, or family, are naturally called upon to decidewhat the means of defence shall be. Is not woman, then, the equal ofman? We cannot say of woman, with reference to man, that she is hissuperior, or his inferior, or his equal; nor can we say of man, withreference to woman, that he is her superior, or her inferior, or herequal. He is her protector, she is his helpmeet. His strength issufficient for her weakness, and her power is the support of hisirresolution and want of faith. Woman's rights are not man's rights; norare man's rights the measure of woman's rights. If she should asserther independence, as some idiosyncratic persons desire, she could onlydeclare her intention to do all those acts and things which woman may ofright do. Given that this is accomplished, and I know not that she wouldpossess one additional domestic, political, or public right, or enjoyone privilege in the family, neighborhood, or state, to which she isnot, in some degree, at least, already accustomed. 

These views and reflections may serve to illustrate and enforce theleading position of this address--that we are to educate young women forthe enjoyments and duties of the sphere in which they are to move. Wespeak to-day of public instruction; but it should ever be borne in mindthat the education of the schools is but a part, and often only theleast important part, of the training that the young receive. There isthe training of infancy and early childhood, the daily culture of home, with its refining or deadening influences, and then the education of thestreet, the parlor, the festive gathering, and the clubs, which exert apower over the youth of both sexes that cannot often be controlledentirely by the school. 

Womanhood is sometimes sacrificed in childhood, when the mother and thefamily fail to develop the womanly qualities of modesty, grace, generosity of character, and geniality of temper, which dignify, adorn, and protect, "The sex whose presence civilizes ours. "

The child, whether girl or boy, reflects the character of its home; andtherefore we are compelled to deal with all the homes of the district ortown, and are required often to counteract the influences they exert. Early vicious training is quite as disastrous to the girl as to the boy;for, strange as it may seem, the world more readily tolerates ignorance, coarseness, rudeness, immodesty, and all their answering vices, in manthan in woman. In the period of life from eight to twenty years of agethe progress of woman is, to us of sterner mould, inconceivably rapid;but from twenty to forty the advantages of education are upon the otherside. It then follows that a defective system of education is morepernicious to woman than to man. 

We may contemplate woman in four relations with their answeringresponsibilities--as pupil, teacher, companion, and mother. As a pupil, she is sensitive, conscientious, quick, ambitious, and possesses in amarvellous degree, as compared with the other sex, the power ofintuition. The boy is logical, or he is nothing; but logic is notnecessary for the girl. Not that she is illogical; but she usually seesthrough, without observing the steps in the process which a boy mustdiscern before he can comprehend the subject presented to his mind. Inthe use of the eye, the ear, the voice, and in the appropriation ofwhatever may be commanded without the highest exercise of the reasoningand reflective faculties, she is incomparably superior. She acceptsmoral truth without waiting for a demonstration, and she obeys the lawfounded upon it without being its slave. She instinctively prefers goodmanners to faulty habits; and, in the requirements of family, social, and fashionable life, she is better educated at sixteen than her brotheris at twenty. She is an adept in one only of the vices of theschool--whispering--and in that she excels. But she does not so readilyresort to the great vice--the crime of falsehood--as do her companionsof the other sex. I call falsehood the great vice, because, if this wereunknown, tardiness, truancy, obscenity, and profanity, could not thrive. Holmes has well said that "sin has many tools, but a lie is the handlethat will fit them all. "

In many primary and district schools the habits and manners of childrenare too much neglected. We associate good habits and good manners withgood morals; and, though we are deceived again and again, andsoliloquize upon the maxim that "all is not gold that glitters, " weinstinctively believe, however often we are betrayed. Habits and mannersare the first evidence of character; and so much of weight do we attachto such evidence, that we give credit and confidence to those whom inour calmer moments we know to be unworthy. The first aim in the schoolshould be to build up a character that shall be truthfully indicated bypurity and refinement of manner and conversation. It does, indeed, sometimes happen that purity of character is not associated withrefinement of manners. This misfortune is traceable to a defective earlyeducation, both in the school and the home; for, had either beenfaithful and intelligent, the evil would have been averted. And, asthere are many homes in city and country where refinement of manners isnot found, and, of course, cannot be taught, the schools must furnishthe training. In this connection, the value of the high school forfemales--whether exclusively so or not, does not seem to meimportant--is clearly seen. Young women are naturally and properly theteachers of primary, district, and subordinate schools of every grade;and society as naturally and properly looks to them to educate, byexample as well as by precept, all the children of the state in goodhabits, good manners, and good morals. We are also permitted to lookforward to the higher relations of life, when, as wives and mothers, they are to exert a potent influence over existing and futuregenerations. The law and the lexicons say "_home_ is the house or theplace where one resides. " This definition may answer for the law and thelexicons, but it does not meet the wants of common life. 

The wife will usually find in her husband less refinement of mannersthan she herself possesses; and it is her great privilege, if not hersolemn duty, to illustrate the line of Cowper, and show that she is of

 "The sex whose presence civilizes ours. "

It is the duty of the teacher to make the school attractive; and whatthe teacher should do for the school the wife should do for the home. The home should be preferred by the husband and children to all otherplaces. Much depends upon themselves; they have no right to claim all ofthe wife and mother. But, without her aid, they can do but little. Withher aid, every desirable result may be accomplished. That this resultmay be secured, female education must be generous, critical, and pure, in everything that relates to manners, habits, and morals. Much may beadded to these, but nothing can serve in their stead. We should add, nodoubt, thorough elementary training in reading, writing, and spelling, both for her own good and for the service of her children. Intellectualtraining is defective where these elements are neglected, and theirimportance to the sexes may be equal. We should not omit music and theculture of the voice. The tones of the voice indicate the tone of themind; but the temper itself may finally yield to a graceful and gentleform of expression. It is not probable that we shall ever give dueattention to the cultivation of the human voice for speaking, reading, and singing. This is an invaluable accomplishment in man. Many of ushave listened to New England's most distinguished living orator, andfelt that well-known lines from the English poets derived new power, ifnot actual inspiration, from the classic tones in which the words wereuttered. 

A cultivated voice in woman is at once the evidence and the means ofmoral power. As the moral sensibilities of the girl are more acute thanthose of the boy, so the moral power of the woman is greater than thatof the man. Many young women are educating themselves for the businessof teaching; and I can commend nothing more important, after the properordering of one's own life, than the discreet and careful training ofthe voice. It is itself a power. It demands sympathy before thesuffering or its cause is revealed by articulate speech; its tones aweassemblies, and command silence before the speaker announces his views;and the rebellious and disorderly, whether in the school, around therostrum, or on the field, bow in submission beneath the authority of itsmajestic cadences. It is hardly possible to imagine a good school, andvery rare to see one, where this power is wanting in the teacher. Womenare often called to take charge of schools where there are lads andyouth destitute of that culture which would lead them to yield respectand consequent obedience. Physical force in these cases is not usuallyto be thought of; but nature has vouchsafed to woman such a degree ofmoral power, of which in the school the voice is the best expression, asoften to fully compensate for her weakness in other respects. 

It is unnecessary to commend reading as an art and an accomplishment;but good readers are so rare among us, that we cannot too strongly urgeteachers to qualify themselves for the great work. I say _great work_, because everything else is comparatively easy to the teacher, andcomparatively unimportant to the pupil. Grammar is merely an element ofreading. It should be introduced as soon as the child's reasoningfaculties are in any degree developed, and presented by the livingvoice, without the aid of books. The alphabet should be taught inconnection with exercises for strengthening and modulating the voice, and the elementary sounds of the letters should be deemed as importantas their names. All this is the proper work of the female teacher; and, when she is ignorant or neglects her duty, the evil is usually so greatas to admit of no complete remedy. 

Reading is at once an imitative and an appreciative art on the part ofthe pupil. He must be trained to appreciate the meaning of the writer;but he will depend upon the teacher at first, and, indeed, for a longtime, for an example of the true mode of expression. This the teachermust be ready to give. It is not enough that she can correct faults ofpronunciation, censure inarticulate utterances, and condemn gruff, nasal, and guttural sounds; but she must be able to present, inreasonable purity, all the opposite qualities. The young women have notyet done their duty to the cause of education in these respects; nor isthere everywhere a public sentiment that will even now allow the duty tobe performed. 

It is difficult to see why the child of five, and the youth of fifteen, should be kept an equal number of hours at school. Each pupil shouldspend as much time in the school-room as is needed for the preparationof the exercise and the exercise itself. The danger from excessiveconfinement and labor is with young pupils. Those in grammar and highschools may often use additional hours for study; but a pupil should besomewhat advanced, and should possess considerable physical strength andendurance, before he ventures to give more than six hours a day tosevere intellectual labor. It must often happen that children in primaryschools can learn in two hours each day all that the teacher has time tocommunicate, or they have power to receive and appropriate. Indeed, Ithink this is usually so. It may not, however, be safe to deduce fromthis fact the opinion that children should never be kept longer inschool than two hours a day; but it seems proper to assume that, ifblessed with good homes, they may be relieved from the tedium ofconfinement in the school-room, when there is no longer opportunity forimprovement. 

We are beginning to realize the advantages of well-educated femaleteachers in primary schools; nor do I deem it improbable that they shallbecome successful teachers and managers of schools of higher grade, according to the present public estimation. But, in regard to the latterposition, I have neither hope, desire, nor anxiety. Whenever the publicjudge them, generally, or in particular cases, qualified to take chargeof high schools and normal schools, those positions will be assigned tothem; and, till that degree of public confidence is accorded, it isuseless to make assertions or indulge in conjectures concerning theability of women for such duties. It is my own conviction that a higherorder of teaching talent is required in the primary school, or for theearly, judicious education of children, than is required in any otherinstitutions of learning. Nor can it be shown that equal ability forgovernment is not essential. There must be different manifestations ofability in the primary and the high school; but, where proper traininghas been enjoyed, pupils in the latter ought to be far advanced in theacquisition of the cardinal virtue of self-control, whose existence inthe school and the state renders government comparatively unnecessary. 

Where there is a human being, there are the opportunity and the duty ofeducation. But our present great concern, as friends of learning, iswith those schools where children are first trained in the elements. Ifin these we can have faithful, accurate, systematic, comprehensiveteaching, everything else desirable will be added thereunto. But, if weare negligent, unphilosophical, and false, the reasonable publicexpectation will never be realized in regard to other institutions oflearning. 

The work must be done by women, and by well-educated women; and, when itis said that in Massachusetts alone we need the services of sixthousand such persons, the magnitude of the work of providing teachersmay be appreciated. Have we not enough in this field for every femaleschool and academy, where high schools are not required, or cannotexist, and for every high school and normal school in the commonwealth?If it is asserted that the supply of female teachers is already greaterthan the demand, it must be stated, in reply, that there are personsenough engaged in teaching, but that the number of competent teachersis, and ever has been, too small. It is something, my friends, it isoften a great deal, to send into a town a well-qualified female teacher. She is not only a blessing to those who are under her tuition, but herexample and influence are often such as to change the local sentimentconcerning teachers and schools. When may we expect a supply of suchpersons? The hope is not a delusion, though its realization may be manyyears postponed. How are competent persons to be selected and qualified?The change will be gradual, and it is to be made in the public opinionas well as in the character of teachers and schools. And is it notpossible, even in view of all that has been accomplished, that we areyet groping in a dark passage, with only the hope that it leads to anoutward-opening door, where, in marvellous but genial light we shallperceive new truths concerning the philosophy of the human mind, andthe means of its development? At this moment we are compelled to admitthat practical teachers and theorists in educational matters are alikeuncertain in regard to the true method of teaching the alphabet, anddivided and subdivided in opinion concerning the order of succession ofthe various studies in the primary and grammar schools. Perfectagreement on these points is not probable; it may not be desirable. I amsatisfied that no greater contribution can be made to the cause oflearning than a presentation of these topics and their elucidation, sothat the teacher shall feel that what he does is philosophical, andtherefore wise. 

The only way to achieve success is to apply faithfully the means athand. Generations of children cannot wait for perfection in methods ofteaching; but teachers of primary schools ought not to neglect anyopportunity which promises aid to them as individuals, or progress inthe profession that they have chosen. As teachers improve, so doschools; and, as schools improve, so do teachers. The influence exertedby teachers is first beneficial to pupils, but, as a result, we soonhave a class of better qualified teachers. With these ideas of theimportance of the teacher's vocation to primary instruction, and, consequently, to all good learning, it is not strange that I place ahigh value upon professional training. A degree of professional trainingmore or less desirable is, no doubt, furnished, by every school; but theadmission does not in any manner detract from the force of the statementthat a young man or woman well qualified in the branches to be taught, yet without experience, may be strengthened and prepared for the work ofteaching, by devoting six, twelve, or eighteen months, under competentinstructors, in company with a hundred other persons having a similarobject in view, to the study, examination, and discussion, of thosesubjects and topics which are sometimes connected with, and sometimesindependent of, the text-books, but which are of daily value to theteacher. 

At present only a portion of this necessary professional training can begiven in the normal schools. If, however, as I trust may sometimes bethe case, none should be admitted but those who are already qualified inthe branches to be taught, the time of attendance might be diminished, and the number of graduates proportionately increased. There are aboutone hundred high schools in the state, and, within the sphere of theirlabors, they are not equalled by any institutions that the world hasseen. Young men are fitted for the colleges, for mechanical, manufacturing, commercial, agricultural, and scientific labors, andyoung men and young women are prepared for the general duties of life. They are also furnishing a large number of well-qualified teachers. Somemay say that with these results we ought to be content. Regarding onlythe past, they are entirely satisfactory; but, animated with reasonablehopes concerning the future, we claim something more and better. It isnot disguised that the members of normal schools, when admitted, do notsustain an average rank in scholarship with graduates of high schools. This is a misfortune from which relief is sought. It is a suggestion, diffidently made, yet with considerable confidence in its practicabilityand value, that graduates of high schools will often obtain additionaland necessary preparation by attending a normal school, if for the termof six months only. And I am satisfied, beyond all reasonable doubt, that, when the normal schools receive only those whose education isequivalent to that now given in the high schools, a body of teacherswill be sent out who will surpass the graduates of any otherinstitution, and whose average professional attainments and practicalexcellence will meet the highest reasonable public expectation. Nor isit claimed that this result will be due to anything known or practisedin normal schools that may not be known and practised elsewhere; but itis rather attributable to the fact that in these institutions theattention of teachers and pupils is directed almost exclusively to thework of teaching, and the means of preparation. The studies, thoughts, and discussions, are devoted to this end. If, with such opportunities, there should be no progress, we should be led to doubt all our previousknowledge of human character, and of the development of the youthfulmind. 

And now, ladies and gentlemen, before I conclude, allow me to remove, orat least to lessen, an impression that these remarks are calculated toproduce. I have assumed that teaching is a profession--an arduousprofession--and that perfection has not yet been attained. I haveassumed, also, that there are many persons engaged in teaching, especially in the primary and mixed district schools, whosequalifications are not as great as they ought to be. But let it not bethence inferred that I am dissatisfied with our teachers and schools. There has been continual progress in education, and a large share ofthis progress is due to teachers; but the time has not yet come when wecan wisely fold our arms, and accept the allurements of undisturbedrepose. 

Nor have I sought, on this occasion, to present even an outline of asystem of female education. In all the public institutions of learningamong us, it should be as comprehensive, as minute, as exact, as thatfurnished for youth of the other sex. Nor is it necessary to concernourselves about the effect of this liberal culture upon the characterand fortunes of society. I do not anticipate any sudden or disastrouseffects. The right of education is a common right; and it isunquestionably the right of woman to assert her rights; and it is awrong and sin if we withhold any, even the least. Having faith inhumanity, and faith in God, let us not shrink from the privilege weenjoy of offering to all, without reference to sex or condition, thebenefits of a public and liberal system of education, which seeks, in analliance with virtue and religion, whose banns are forbidden by none, toenlighten the ignorant, restrain and reform the depraved, and penetrateall society with good learning and civilization, so that the highestidea of a well-ordered state shall be realized in an advanced andadvancing condition of individual and family life. 

THE INFLUENCE, DUTIES, AND REWARDS, OF TEACHERS. 

[A Lecture delivered at Teachers' Institutes. ]

It is the purpose, and we believe that it will be the destiny, ofMassachusetts, to build up a comparatively perfect system of publicinstruction. To this antiquity did not aspire; and it is the just boastof modern times, and especially of the American States, that learning isnot the amusement of a few only, whom wealth and taste have led into itspaths, but that it is encouraged by governments, and cherished by thewhole people. Antiquity had its schools and teachers; but the latterwere, for the most part, founders of sects in politics, morals, philosophy, religion, or the habits of daily life; while its schoolswere frequented and sustained by those who sought to build on thecivilization of the times such structures as their tastes conceived ortheir opinions dictated. 

There were not in Athens or Rome, according to the American idea, anyschools for the people; and Carlyle, Brownson, and Emerson, are suchteachers in kind, though not in power and influence, as were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. These men were leaders as well as teachers, andtheir followers were disciples and controversialists rather than pupils. But it is not possible for modern leaders in politics, philosophy, andsocial life, to rival the ancients. Manual labor is not more divided andsubdivided than is the influence of the human intellect. The newspaperhas inspired every man with the love of self-judgment, and the commonschool has qualified him, in some degree, for its exercise. Theancients, whose names and fame have come down to us, taught byconversations, discussions, and lectures; the moderns, as Carlyle, Brownson, and Emerson, by lectures, essays, and reviews. But thesesystems are quite inadequate to meet the wants of American civilization. 

Indeed, however men of talent may strive, there cannot be anotherSocrates, Plato, or Aristotle; for the printing-press has come, andtheir occupation has gone. Teachers were philosophers, pupils werefollowers and disciples, while learning was devoted to the support ofspeculations and theories. 

But, while we have no such teachers as those of Athens, and need no suchschools as they founded, we have teachers and schools whose characterand genius correspond to the age in which we live. Teaching is aprofession; not merely an ignoble pursuit, nor a toy of scholasticambition, but a profession enjoying the public confidence, requiringgreat talents, demanding great industry, and securing, permit me to say, great rewards. To be the leader of a sect or the founder of a school, issomething; but the acceptable teacher is superior to either; he is thefirst and chief exponent of a popular sovereignty which seeks happinessand immortality for itself by elevating and refining the parts of whichit is composed. The ancient teacher gathered his hearers, disciples, andpupils, in the streets, groves, and public squares. The modern teacheris comparatively secluded; but let him not hence infer that he iswithout influence. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, had their triumphs;but none more distinguished than that of a Massachusetts teacher, who, at the age of fourscore years, on a festive day, received from hisformer pupils--and among them were the most eminent of the land--sincereand affectionate assurances of esteem and gratitude. The pupil may beestranged from the master in opinion, for our system does not concernitself with opinions, political or religious; but the faithful teacherwill always find the evidence of his fidelity in the lives of thoseintrusted to his care. No position is more important than the teacher's;and his influence is next to that of the parent. It is his high andnoble province to touch the youthful mind, test its quality, and developits characteristics. He often stands in the place of the parent. He aidsin giving character to the generations of men; which is at once a higherart and a purer glory than distinguishes those who build the walls ofcities, or lay the foundations of empires. The cities which contestedfor the honor of being the birthplace of Homer are forgotten, orremembered only because they contested for the honor, while Homerhimself is immortal. If, then, the mere birth of a human being is anhonor to a city, how illustrious the distinction of those who guide thefootsteps of youth along the rugged paths of learning, and develop in ageneration the principles of integrity and mercy, justice and freedom, government and humanity! If in a lifetime of toil the teacher shallbring out of the mass of common minds one Franklin, or Howard, orChanning, or Bowditch, he will have accomplished more than is secured bythe devotees of wealth, or the disciples of pleasure. As the man is moreimportant than the mere philosopher, so is the modern teacher moreelevated than the ancient. 

The true teacher takes hold of the practical and elementary, asdistinguished from the learning whose chief or sole value is in display. Present gratification is desirable, especially to parents and teachers;but it may be secured at the cost of solid learning and real progress. This is a serious error among us, and it will not readily be abandoned;but it is the duty of teachers, and of all parents who are friends togenuine learning, to aid in its removal. We are inclined to treat theperiod of school-life as though it covered the entire time that oughtproperly to be devoted to education. The first result--a result followedby pernicious consequences--is that the teacher is expected to giveinstruction in every branch that the pupil, as child, youth, or adult, may need to know. It is impossible that instruction so varied shouldalways be good. Learning is knowledge of subjects based and built upon athorough acquaintance with their elements. The path of duty, therefore, should lead the teacher to make his instruction thorough in a fewbranches, rather than attempt to extend it over a great variety ofsubjects. This, to the teacher who is employed in a district or town butthree or six months, is a hard course, and many may not be inclined topursue it. Something, no doubt, must be yielded to parents; but they, too, should be educated to a true view of their children's interests. Asthe world is, a well-spoken declamation is more gratifying to parents, and more creditable to teachers, than the most careful training in thevowel-sounds; yet the latter is infinitely more valuable to the scholar. Neither progress in the languages nor knowledge of mathematics cancompensate for the want of a thorough etymological discipline. Thistraining should be primary in point of time, as well as elementary incharacter; and a classical education is no adequate compensation. 

Elements are all-important to the teacher and the student. It is notpossible to have an idea of a square without some idea of a straightline, nor to express with pencil or words the arc of a circle without aprevious conception of the curve. Combination follows in course. We aredriven to it. Our own minds, all nature, all civilization, tend to thecombination of elements. 

We think fast, live fast, learn fast, and, as the fashion of the worldrequires a knowledge of many things, we crowd the entire education ofour children into the short period of school-life. Here, and just here, public sentiment ought to relieve the teacher by reforming itself. 

It should be understood that school-life is to be devoted to thethorough discipline of the mind to study, and to an acquaintance withthose simple, elementary branches, which are the foundation of all goodlearning. When a knowledge of the elements is secured, then thelanguages, mathematics, and all science, may be pursued with enthusiasmand success by a class of men well educated in every department. Publicsentiment must allow the teacher to give careful instruction in readingand spelling, for example, in the most comprehensive meaning of thoseterms--in the sound and power of letters, in the composition and use ofwords, and in the natural construction of sentences. This, of course, includes a knowledge of grammar, not as a dry, philological study, butas a science; not as composed of arbitrary rules, merely, but as thecommon and best judgment of men concerning the use and power oflanguage, of which rules and definitions are but an imperfectexpression. 

Nor do we herein assign the teacher to neglect or obscurity. He, as wellas others, must have faith in the future. His reward may be distant, butit is certain. 

It is, however, likely that the labors of a faithful elementary teacherwill be appreciated immediately, and upon the scene of his toil. But, ifthey are not, his pupils, advancing in age and increasing in knowledge, will remember with gratitude and in words the self-sacrificing labors oftheir master. 

We are not so constituted as to labor without motive. With some themotive is high, with others it is low and grovelling. The teacher mustbe himself elevated, or he cannot elevate others. The pupil may, indeed, advance to a higher sphere than that occupied by the teacher;but it is only because he draws from a higher fountain elsewhere. Insuch cases the success of the pupil is not the success of the master. Hewho labors as a teacher for mere money, or for temporary fame, which iseven less valuable, cannot choose a calling more ignoble, nor can heever rise to a higher; for his sordid motives bring all pursuits to thelow level of his own nature. 

Yet it is not to be assumed that the teacher, more than the clergyman, is to labor without pecuniary compensation; for, while money should notbe the sole object of any man's life, it is, under the influence of ourcivilization, essential to the happiness of us all. Wealth, properlyacquired and properly used, may become a means of self-education. Itpurchases relief from the harassing toil of uninterrupted manual labor. It is the only introduction we can have to the thoroughfares of travelby which we are made acquainted personally with the globe that weinhabit. It brings to our firesides books, paintings, and statuary, bywhich we learn something of the world as it is and as it was. It givesus the telescope and the microscope, by whose agency we are able toappreciate, even though but imperfectly, the immensity of creation onthe one hand, and its infinity on the other. The teacher is not tolabour without money, nor to despise it more than other men; and thepublic might as well expect the free services of the minister, lawyer, physician, or farmer, as to expect the gratuitous or cheap education oftheir children. While the teacher is educating others, he must alsoeducate himself. This he cannot do without both leisure and money. Theadvice of Iago is, therefore, good advice for teachers: "Go, make money. * * Put money enough in your purse. " The teacher's motives should beabove mere gain; though this view of the subject does not, as some mightinfer, lead to the conclusion that he ought to labor for inadequatecompensation. 

When George III. Was first insane, Dr. Willis was called to theimmediate personal charge of the king. Dr. Willis had been educated tothe church, and a living had been assigned him; but, becoming interestedin the subject of insanity, he had established an asylum, and gained adistinguished position in his new profession. The suffering monarch wassadly puzzled to know why Dr. Willis was with him, and how he had beenbrought there. The custodian was not very definite in his explanations, but suggested that he came to comfort the king in his afflictions; and, said he, "You know that our Saviour went about doing good. "--"Yes, "said the king, "but he never received seven hundred pounds a year forit. " This was good wit, especially good royal wit, because unexpected. But there is no reason why actual monarchs of England, or comingmonarchs of America, should be treated or taught gratuitously. Thecompensation, the living of the teacher, is one thing; the motive mayand ought to be quite different. The teacher should labor in hisprofession because he loves it, because he does good in it, and becausehe can in that sphere answer a high purpose of existence. These beingthe motives of the teacher, he should educate, draw out, correspondingones in his pupils. 

The teacher is not to create--he is to draw out. Every child has thegerms of many, and, it may be, quite different qualities of character. Look at the infant. It is so constituted that it may have a stalwartarm, broad chest, and well-rounded, vigorous muscles; but yet it maycome to adult age destitute of these physical excellences. Yet you willnot say that the elements did not exist in the child. They were there;but, being neglected, they followed a law of our nature, that thedevelopment of a faculty depends upon its exercise. Nature will developsome quality in every man; for our existence demands the exercise of apart of our faculties. The faculty used will be developed in excess ascompared with other faculties. It is the business of the teacher to aidnature. For the most part, he must stimulate, encourage, draw out, develop, though it may happen that he will be required occasionally tocheck a tendency which threatens to absorb or overshadow all the others. He must, at any rate, prevent the growth of those powers which tendtowards the savage state. 

While the teacher creates nothing, he must so draw out the qualities ofthe child that it may attain to perfect manhood. He moulds, he renderssymmetrical, the physical, the intellectual, the moral man. Naturesometimes does this herself, as though she would occasionally furnish amodel man for our imitation, as she has given lines, and forms, andcolors, which all artists of all ages shall copy, but cannot equal. But, do the best we can, education is more or less artificial; and hence thechild of the school will suffer by comparison with the child of nature, when she presents him in her best forms. 

In a summer ramble I met a man so dignified as to attract the notice andcommand the respect of all who knew him. I was with him upon the lakesand mountains several days and nights, and never for a moment did themanliness of his character desert him. I have seen no other person whocould boast such physical beauty. Accustomed to a hunter's life;carrying often a pack of thirty or forty or fifty pounds; sleeping uponthe ground or a bed of boughs; able, if necessity of interest demanded, to travel in the woods the ordinary distance which a good horse wouldpass over upon our roads; with every organ of the arm, the leg, thetrunk, fully expressed; with a manly, kind, intelligent countenance, abeard uncut, in the vigor of early manhood, he seemed a model which thestatuaries of Greece and Rome desired to see, but did not. He had atonce the bearing of a soldier and the characteristics of a gentleman. Hewas ignorant of grammatical rules and definitions, yet his conversationwould have been accepted in good circles of New England society. Thisman had his faults, but they were not grievous faults, nor did they inany manner affect the qualities of which I have spoken. 

This is what nature sometimes does; this is what we should always striveto do, extending this symmetry, if possible, to the moral as well as tothe intellectual and physical organization. This man is ignorant ofscience, of books, of the world of letters, and the world of art, yet werespect him. Why? Because nature has chosen to illustrate in him her ownprinciples, power and beauty. 

That we may draw out the qualities of the human mind as they exist, wemust first appreciate our influence upon childhood and youth. Our ownexperience is the best evidence of what that influence is. All along ourlives the lessons of childhood return to us. The hills and valleys, thelakes, rivers, and rivulets, of our early home, come not in clearervisions before us than do the exhortations to industry, the incentivesto progress, the lessons of learning, and the principles of truth, uttered and offered by the teachers of early years. In the same way thelines of the poet, the reflections of the philosopher, the calm truthsof the historian, read once and often carelessly, and for many yearsforgotten, return as voices of inspiration, and are evermore with us. 

That the teacher may have influence, his ear must be open to the voiceof truth, and his mouth must be liberal with words of consolation, encouragement, and advice. He rules in a little world, and the scales ofjustice must be balanced evenly in his hands. He should go in and outbefore his scholars free from partiality or prejudice; indifferent tothe voice of envy or detraction; shunning evil and emulous of good;patient of inquiries in the hours of duty; filled with the spirit ofindustry in his moments of leisure; gathering up and spreading beforehis pupils the choicest gems of literature, art, and science, that theymay be early and truly inspired with the love of learning. 

The public school is a little world, and the teacher rules therein. Itcontains the rich and the poor, the virtuous and the corrupt, thestudious and the indifferent, the timid and the brave, the fearful andthe hearts elate with hope and courage. Life is there no cheat; it wearsno mask, it assumes no unnatural positions, but presents itself as itis. Deformed and repulsive in some of its features, yet to him whose eyeis as quick to discover its beauty as its deformity, its harmony as itsdiscord, there is always a bright spot on which he may gaze, and a fondhope to which he may cling. Artificial life, whether in the selectschool or the select party, tends to weaken our faith in humanity; and awant of faith in our race is an omen of ill-success in life. Teachersshould have faith in humanity, and should labor constantly to inspireothers with the belief that the true law of our nature is the law ofprogress. 

Those who come early in life to the conclusion that the many cannot bemoved by the higher sentiments and ideas which control a few favoredmortals, cease to labor for the advancement of the race. Theyconsequently lose their hold upon society, and society neglects them. For such men there can be no success. 

Others, like Jefferson and Channing, never lose confidence in theirspecies, and their species never lose confidence in them. When theteacher comes to believe that the world is worse than it was, and nevercan be better, he need wait for no other evidence that his days ofusefulness are over. 

The school-room will teach the child, even as the prison will instructmaturity and age, that few persons are vicious in the extreme, and thatno one lives without some ennobling traits of character and life. Theteacher's faith is the measure of the teacher's usefulness. It is to himwhat conception is to the artist; and, if the sculptor can see the imageof grace and beauty in the fresh-quarried marble, so must the teachersee the full form of the coming man in the trembling child or awkwardyouth. 

The teacher ought not to grow old. To be sure, time will lay its hand onhim, as it does on others; but he should always cultivate in himself thefeelings, sentiments, and even ambitions of youth. Far enough removedfrom his pupils in age and position to stimulate them by his example, and encourage them by his precepts, he should yet be so near them thathe can appreciate the steps and struggles which mark their progress inthe path of learning. There must be some points of contact, somethingcommon to teacher and pupils. Indeed, for us all it is true that ageloses nothing of its dignity or respect when it accepts the sentimentsand sports of youth and childhood. But above all should the teacherremember the common remark of La Place, in his Celestial Mechanics, andthe observation of Dr. Bowditch upon it. "Whenever I meet in La Placewith the words, 'Thus it plainly appears, ' I am sure that hours, andperhaps days, of hard study, will alone enable me to discover _how_ itplainly appears. " The good teacher will seek first to estimate eachscholar's capacity, and then adapt his instructions accordingly. Thoughhe may be far removed from his pupils in attainments, he should be ableto mark the steps by which ordinary minds pass from common principles totheir noblest application. 

This observation may by some be deemed unnecessary; but there are livingteachers who, having mastered the noblest sciences, are unable toappreciate and lead ordinary minds. 

The teacher must be in earnest. This is the price of success in everyprofession. The law, it is said, is a jealous mistress, and permits norivals; the indifferent, careless minister is but a blind leader of theblind, and the "undevout astronomer is mad. "

Sincerity of soul and earnestness of purpose will achieve success. According to an eminent authority, there are three kinds of great men:those who are born great, those who achieve greatness, and those whohave greatness thrust upon them. If we take greatness of birth to be ingreatness of soul and intellect, and not in the mere accident ofancestry, it is such only who have greatness thrust upon them; for theworld, after all, rarely makes a mistake in this respect. But there is alarger and a nobler class, whose greatness, whatever it is, must beachieved; and to this class I address myself. 

Success is practicable. There need be no failures. A man of reflectionwill soon find whether he can succeed in his pursuit; if not, he hasmistaken his calling, or neglected the proper means of success. Ineither case, a remedy is at hand. If a teacher is indifferent to hiscalling, and cannot bring himself to pursue it with ardor, it is a dutyto himself, to his profession, to his pupils, to abandon it at once. Itis idle to suppose that we are doing good in a work to which we are notattracted by our sympathies, and in which we are not sustained by ourfaith and hopes. The men who succeed are the men who believe that theycan succeed. The men who fail are those to whom success would have beena surprise. There is no doubt some appropriate pursuit in life for everyman of ordinary talents; but no one can tell whether he has found it forhimself until he has made a vigorous and persistent application of hispowers. If the teacher fail to do this, he need not seek for success inanother profession, when he has already declined to pay its price. 

The choice of a profession is one of the great acts of life. It shouldnot be done hastily, nor without a careful examination and justappreciation of the elements of character. A competent teacher may aidhis pupils in this respect. A mistake in occupation is a calamity to theindividual, and an injury to the public. Our school-rooms containartists, farmers, mathematicians, mechanics, poets, lawyers, statesmen, orators, and warriors; but some one must do for them what Shakspearesays the monarch of the hive has done for all his subjects--assignedthem

 "Officers of sorts; Where some, like magistrates, correct at home; Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad; Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds; Which pillage, they with merry march bring home To the tent-royal of their emperor; Who, busied in his majesty, surveys The singing masons, building roofs of gold; The civil citizens kneading up the honey; The poor mechanic porters crowding in Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate; The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, Delivering o'er to executors pale The lazy, yawning drone. "

Teachers are so situated that they may give wholesome advice; whileparents--and I say it with respect--are quite likely, under theinfluence of an instinctive belief that their children are fitted forany place within the range of human labor or human ambition, to makefatal mistakes. While all pursuits and professions, if honest, areequally honorable, the individual selection must be determined by taste, circumstances, individual habits, and often by physical facts. It is notfor one person to do everything, but it is for each person to do atleast one thing well. As a general rule, the painter, who has spent hisyouth and manhood in studying the canvas, had better not study thestars; and the artist, who has power to bring the form of life from thecold marble, has no right to solve problems in geometry, weigh planets, or calculate eclipses. The proper choice of the business of life may domuch to perfect our social system, and it will certainly advance ourmaterial prosperity. There is everywhere in our civilization mutualdependence, and there must be mutual support. In no other way can weadvance to our destiny as becomes an enlightened people. 

But all of life and education, either to pupil, teacher, or man, is notto be found in the school-room. The common period of school-life issufficient only for elementary education. The average school-goingperiod is ten years. Of this, one-half is spent in vacations andabsences, so that each child has about five years of school-life. Onlyone-fourth of each day is spent in the school-room; and the continuousattendance, therefore, is about fifteen months, equal to the time whichmost of us give to sleep, every four or five years of our existence. This view leads me to say again that it is the duty of the teacher inthis brief period to lay a good foundation for subsequent scientific andclassical culture. More than this cannot be accomplished; and, wherethis is accomplished, and a taste for learning is formed, and the meansto be employed are comprehended, a satisfactory school-life has beenpassed. 

Education--universal education--is a necessity; and, as there is noroyal road to learning, so there is no aristocracy of mental powerdepending upon social or pecuniary distinctions. The New Englandcolonies, and Massachusetts first of all, established the system ofeducation now called universal or public. It was not then easy tocomprehend the principle which lies at the foundation of a system ofpublic instruction. We are first to consider that a system of publicinstruction implies a system of universal taxation. The only rule onwhich taxes can be levied justly is that the object sought is of publicnecessity, or manifest public convenience. It quite often happens thatmen of our own generation are insensible or indifferent to the truerelation of the citizen to the cause of education. Some seem to imaginethat their interest in schools, and of course their moral obligation tosupport them, ceases with the education of their own children. This is agreat error. The public has no right to levy a tax for the education ofany particular child, or family of children; but its right of taxationcommences when the education or plan of education is universal, andceases whenever the plan is limited, or the operations of the system arecircumscribed. 

No man can be taxed properly because he has children of his own toeducate; this may be a reason with some for cheerful payment, but it hasin itself no element of a just principle. When, however, the peopledecide that education is a matter of public concern, then taxation forits promotion rests upon the same foundation as the most importantdepartments of a government. Yet, many generations of men came andpassed away before the doctrine was received that, as a public matter, aman is equally interested in the education of his neighbor's childrenas in the education of his own. As parents, we have a special interestin our children; as citizens, it is this, that they may be honest, industrious, and effective in their labors. This interest we have in allchildren. 

The safety of our persons and property demands their honesty; our rightto be exempt from pauper and criminal taxes requires habits of universalindustry; and our part in the general wealth and prosperity is increasedby the intelligent application of manual labor in all the walks of life. 

A man may, indeed, be proud of the attainments of his family, as men areoften proud of their ancestry; yet they possess little real value as afamily possession. The pride of ancestry has no value; it

 "Is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself Till, by broad-spreading, it disperse to naught. "

I pass from this digression to the statement that the chief means ofself-improvement are five: Observation, Conversation, Reading, Memory, and Reflection. 

It is an art to observe well--to go through the world with our eyesopen--to see what is before us. All men do not see alike, nor see thesame things. Our powers of observation take on the hues of daily life. The artist, in a strange city or foreign land, observes only thespecimens of taste and beauty or their opposites; the mechanic studiesanew the principles of his science as applied to the purposes of life;the architect transfers to his own mind the images of churches, cathedrals, temples, and palaces; while the philanthropist rejoices incellars and lanes, that he may know how poverty and misery change theface and heart of man. 

An American artist, following the lead of Mr. Jefferson, has beautifullyillustrated the nature of the power of observation. We do not see eventhe faces of our common friends alike. The stranger observes a familylikeness which is invisible to the familiar acquaintance. The formersees only the few points of agreement, and decides upon them; while thelatter has observed and studied the more numerous points of difference, until he is blind to all others. Hence a portrait may appear true to astranger, which, to an intimate acquaintance, is barren in expression, and destitute of character. Therefore, the artist wisely and properlyesteemed himself successful when his work was approved by the wife orthe mother. The world around us is full of knowledge. We should sobehold it as to be instructed by all that is. The distant star paintsits image on our eye with a ray of light sent forth thousands of yearsago; yet its lesson is not of itself, but of the universe and itsmysteries, and of the Creator out of whose divine hand all things havecome. 

Conversation is at once an art, an accomplishment, and a science. Itleads to valuable practical results. It has a place, and by no means aninferior place, in the schools. Facts stated, questions proposed, ortheories illustrated, in conversation, are permanently impressed uponthe mind. It is in the power of the teacher to communicate muchinformation in this way, and it is in the power of us all to makeconversation a means of improvement. 

But, when the pupil leaves the school, _reading_, so systematic andthorough as to be called study, is, no doubt, the best culture he canenjoy. In the first place, books are accessible to all, and they may behad at all times. They can be used in moments of leisure, in solitude, in the hours when sleep is too proud to wait on us, and when friends areabsent or indifferent to our lot. Conversation may be patronizing, or itmay leave us a debtor; when the book-seller's bill is settled, we haveno account with the author. 

If I am permitted to speak to all, pupils as well as teachers, I aminclined to say, "Do not consider your education finished when you leavehome and the school. " Your labors of a practical sort ought then tocommence. With system and care, you may read works of literature andhistory, or devote yourself to mathematics in the higher departments ofscience. As a general thing, however, it is not wise to attempt too muchat once. The custom of the schools is to require each pupil to attend toseveral branches at the same time; but this course cannot be recommendedto adult persons with disciplined minds. It seems better to select onesubject, and make it the leading topic, for a time, of our studies andthoughts. It may also be proper to suggest that works of fiction, poetry, and romance, ought not to be read until the mind is welldisciplined, and a good foundation of solid learning is laid. Such workstend to make one's style of thought and writing easy, flowing, andagreeable; but they are also calculated to make us dissatisfied with themore substantial labors of intellectual life. Having obtained theelements of learning, one thing is absolutely essential--system instudy. I fancy that there are two prevalent errors among us. First, thatmen often attain intellectual eminence without study; and, secondly, that exclusive devotion to books is the price of success. Whoeverneglects study, whatever his natural abilities, will find himselfdistanced by inferior men; and, on the other hand, whoever will devotethree hours each day to the systematic improvement of his mind willfinally be numbered among the leading persons of the age. But, while weobserve, converse, and read, the power of memory and the habit ofreflection should be cultivated. The habit of reflection is a great aidto the memory, and together they enable us to use the knowledge we dailyacquire. 

No previous age of the world has offered so great encouragement, whetherin fame or money, to men of science and literature, as the present. Formerly, authors flourished under the patronage of princes, or witheredby their neglect; but now they are encouraged and paid by the people, and reap where they have sown, whether kings will or not. The poverty ofauthors was once proverbial; but now the only authors who are poor arepoor authors. Good learning, integrity, and ability, are wellcompensated in all the professions. Some one remarked to Mr. Webster, "That the profession of the law was crowded. "--"Yes, " said he, "rathercrowded below, but there is plenty of room above. " Littleness andmediocrity always seek the paths worn by superior men; and the trulyillustrious in literature and science are few in number compared withthose who attempt to tread in the footsteps of their illustriouspredecessors; but none of these things ought to deter young men ofability, industry, and integrity, from boldly entering the lists, without fear of failure. The world is usually just, and it willultimately award the tokens of its approbation to those who deservesuccess. 

And there is a happy peculiarity in talent, --the variety is so greatthat the competition is small. Of all the living authors, are there twoso alike that they can be considered competitors or rivals? The nationhas applauded and set the seal of its approbation upon the eloquence ofHenry, Otis, Adams, Ames, Pinckney, Wirt, Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, not because these men resembled one another, but because each hadpeculiarities and excellences of his own. The same variety of excellenceis seen in living orators, and in all the eloquence and learning ofantiquity which time has spared and history has transmitted to us. It issaid that when Aristides wrote the sentence of his own banishment for ahumble and unknown enemy, the only reason given by the peasant was thathe was "tired with hearing him called the Just. " And the world sometimesappears to be restive under the influence of men of talent; but thatinfluence, whether always agreeable or not, is both permanent andbeneficial. 

Not only does each generation respect its own leading minds, but it issubmissive to the learning and intellect of other days. The influence ofancient Greece still remains. We copy her architecture, borrow from herphilosophy, admire her poetry, and bow with humility before the remnantsof her majestic literature. So the policy of Rome is perceptible in thecivilization of every European country, and it is a potent element inthe laws and jurisprudence of America. The eloquence of Demosthenes hasbeen impressed upon every succeeding generation of civilized men; thegenius of Hannibal has stimulated the ambition of warriors from his owntime to that of Napoleon; while Shakspeare's power has been the wonderof all modern authors and readers. It is a great representative fact inmental philosophy, which we cannot too much contemplate, thatDemosthenes and Cicero not only enchained the thousands of Greece andRome in whose presence they stood, but that their eloquence has had acontrolling influence over myriads to whom the language in which theyspoke was unknown. The words that the houseless Homer sung in thestreets of Smyrna have commanded the admiration of all later times; andeven the mud walls around Plato's garden, on which are preserved thefragments of statuary with which the garden was once adorned, attractand instruct the wanderers and students about Athens. 

But let us not deceive ourselves with the idea that we can illustrateanew the greatness which has distinguished a few men only in all thelong centuries of the world's existence. Be not imitators nor followersof other men's glory. There is a path for each one, and his duty liestherein. Yet the leading men of the world are lights which ought not tobe hid from the young, for they serve to show the extent of the field inwhich human powers may be employed. The rule of the successful life isto neglect no present opportunity of good either to yourself or toothers; and the rule of the successful student is to gather informationfrom whatever source he may, not doubting that it will prove useful tohimself or to his fellow-men. 

Our own age has furnished two men, --one living, the other dead, --quiteopposite in talents and attainments, whose power and influence may nothave been surpassed in ancient or modern times. I speak of Kossuth andWebster. Our history has no parallel for the first. Most men, young orold, gay or severe, radical or conservative, were touched by hismournful strains, and influenced by his magic words. He came from a landof which we knew little, and so laid open the history of its wrongs thathe enlisted multitudes in its behalf. I speak not now of the views hepresented, nor of the demands he made upon the American people. If hetaught error and asked wrong, so the more wonderful was his career. Nodoubt his cause did much for him; but other patriots and exiles havehad equal opportunities with Kossuth, yet no one has so swayed thepublic mind. 

He was distinguished in intellect, a master of much learning, a man ofnice moral feeling and strong religious sentiments, all of which werecombined and blended in his addresses to the people. But he spoke alanguage whose rudiments he first learned in manhood. In his speech heneglected the chief rule of Grecian eloquence. With one theme, only, --the wrongs of Hungary; with one object, only, --her relief andelevation, --he commanded the general attention of the American mind. Themission of Kossuth in America deserves to be remembered as anintellectual phenomenon, whose like, we of this generation may not againsee. 

Mr. Webster had never great personal popularity. His presence wasmajestic, but forbidding. His manners were agreeable, and sometimesfascinating to his friends, when he was in a genial mood; but he wasoften reserved or even austere to strangers, and terrible to hisenemies. His style of thought was mathematical, his language expressive, but never popular. He wrote as a man would dictate an essay which was toappear as a posthumous work. His eloquence was not that which oftenpasses for eloquence upon the stump or at the bar. He seldom attemptedto court the people, and when he did, it was as if he mocked himself, and scorned the spirit which could be moved by the breezes of popularfavor. He was not free from faults, personal and political; yet heacquired a control which has not been possessed by any man sinceWashington. Whenever he was to speak, the public were anxious to hearand to read. Hardly any man has had the fortune to present his views inaddresses, letters, and speeches, to so large a portion of hiscountrymen; yet the people whom he addressed, and who were anxious forhis words and opinions, did not always, or even generally, agree withhim. Mr. Webster's power was chiefly, if not solely, intellectual. Hehad not the personal qualities of Mr. Clay or General Jackson; he wasnot, like Mr. Jefferson the chosen exponent of a political creed, andthe admitted leader of a great political party; nor had he the militarycharacter and universally acknowledged patriotism of General Washington, which made him first in the hearts of his countrymen. Mr. Webster standsalone. His domain is the intellect, and thus far in America he iswithout a rival. To Mr. Webster, and to all men proportionately, according to the measure of their gifts and attainments, we may applyhis great words: "A superior and commanding human intellect, a trulygreat man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporaryflame, burning brightly for a while, and then giving place to returningdarkness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat, as well as radiantlight, with power to enkindle the common mass of human mind; so that, when it glimmers in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, nonight follows, but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from thepotent contact of its own spirit. "

Some humble measure of this greatness may be attained by all; and, if Ihave sought to lead you in the way of improvement by considerations toopurely personal and selfish, I will implore you, in conclusion, asteachers and as citizens, to consider yourselves as the servants of yourcountry and your race. There can be no real greatness of mind withoutgenerosity of soul. If a superior human intellect seems to be speciallythe gift of God, how is he wanting in true religion who fails todedicate it to humanity, justice, and virtue!

An eminent historian, seeing at one view, and as in the present moment, the fall of great states, ancient and modern, and anticipating a likefate for his own beloved land, has predicted that in two centuries therewill be three hundred millions of people in North America speaking thelanguage of England, reading its authors, and glorying in theirdescent. If this be so, what limits can we assign to the work, or howestimate the duty, of those intrusted with the education of the young?

Who can say what share of responsibility for the future of America isupon the teachers of the land?

LIBERTY AND LEARNING. 

[An Address delivered at Montague, July 4th, 1857. ]

I congratulate you upon the auspicious moments of this, the eighty-firstanniversary of our National Independence; and its return, now and ever, should be the occasion of gratitude to the Author of all good, that Hehath vouchsafed to our fathers and to their descendants the wisdom toestablish and the wisdom to preserve the institutions of Liberty inAmerica. 

And I congratulate you that you accept this anniversary as the occasionfor considering the subject of education. Ignorant and blind worshippersof Liberty can do but little for its support; but, whatever of change ordecay may come to our institutions, Liberty itself can never die in thepresence of a people universally and thoroughly educated. It is not, then, inappropriate nor unphilosophical for us to connect Education andLiberty together; and I therefore propose, after presenting somethoughts upon the Declaration of Independence, and its relations to theAmerican Union, to consider the value of political learning, itsneglect, and the means by which it may be promoted. 

The events and epochs of life are logical in their nature, and areharmonious or inharmonious as the affairs of men are controlled byprinciple, policy, or accident. Humboldt, Maury, and Guyot, Arago, Agassiz, and Pierce, by observation, philosophy, and mathematics, demonstrate the harmony of the physical creation. In the microscopicanimalculæ; in the gigantic remains, whether vegetable or animal, ofother ages and conditions of life; in the coral reef and the mountainrange; in the hill-side rivulet that makes "the meadows green;" in theocean current that bathes and vivifies a continent; in the setting ofthe leaf upon its stem, and the moving of Uranus in its orbit, theytrace a law whose harmony is its glory, and whose mystery is theevidence of its divinity. 

National changes, the movements and progress of the human race, as awhole and in its parts, are obedient, likewise, to law; and are, therefore, logical in their character, though generally lacking inprecision of connection and order of succession. Or it may be, rather, that we lack power to trace the connection between events that depend inpart, at least, upon the prejudices, passions, vices, and weaknesses, ofmen. The development of the logic of human affairs waits for aphilosopher who shall study and comprehend the living millions of ourrace, as the philosophers now study and comprehend the subjects ofphysical science. We have no guaranty that this can ever be done. Asmind is above matter, the mental philosopher enters upon the most variedand difficult field of labor. 

Keeping this fact in mind, it appears to be true that every person ofobservation, reading, and reflection, is something of a mentalphilosopher, though much the larger number have no knowledge of physicalscience. And especially must the student of history have a system ofmental philosophy; but often, no doubt, his system is too crude forgeneral notice. Every historian connects the events of his narrative bysome thread of philosophy or speculation; every reader observes someconnection, though he may never develop it to himself, between theevents and changes of national and ethnological life; and even theobserver whose vision is limited by his own horizon in time and spacemarks a dependence, and speaks of cause and effect. All this followsfrom the existence and nature of man. Man is not inert, nor evenpassive, merely; and his activity will continually organize itself intofacts and forms, ever changing in character, it may be, yet subject toa law as wise and fixed as that of planetary motion. 

The Independence of the British Colonies in America, declared on the 4thof July, 1776, is not an isolated fact; nor is the Declaration itself ahasty and overwrought production of a young and enthusiastic adventurerin the cause of liberty. 

The passions and the reason of men connected the Declaration ofIndependence with the massacre in King-street, of March 5th, 1770; withthe passage and repeal of the Stamp Act; with the attempt to enforce theWrits of Assistance; with the act to close the port of Boston; with thepeace of 1763; with the Act of Settlement of 1688; with the execution ofCharles I. , and the Protectorate of Cromwell; with the death of Hampden;with the confederation of 1643; with the royal charters granted to therespective colonies; with the compact made on board the Mayflower; and, finally, and distinctly, and chiefly, --as the basis of the greatestlegal argument of modern times, made by the Massachusetts House ofRepresentatives, from 1765 to 1775, --with the events at Runnymede, andthe grant of the Great Charter to the nobles and people of England in1215, which is itself based upon the concessions of Edward theConfessor, and the affirmation of the Saxon laws in the eleventhcentury. Our Independence is, then, one logical fact or event in a longsuccession, to the enumeration of which we may yet add the confederationof 1778, the constitution of 1787, the French Revolution of 1789, therapid increase of American territory and States, the revolutionaryspirit of continental Europe, the reforms in the British government athome, the wise modifications of its colonial policy, and for us a longcareer of prosperity based upon the cardinal doctrine of the equality ofall men before the law. 

Nor can any reader of the Declaration itself assume that it contains onestatement, proposition, idea, or word, not carefully considered, andcarefully expressed. It was not the production of hasty, thoughtless, orreckless men. The country had been gradually prepared for the greatevent. States, counties, and towns, had made the most distinctexpressions of opinion upon the relations of the colonies to the mothercountry. On the 7th of June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, moved, in the Congress of the United Colonies, a resolution declaring, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free andindependent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to theBritish crown, and that all political connection between them and thestate of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. Thesubject was considered on the tenth; and, on the eleventh instant, thecommittee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Dr. Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, was appointed. On thetwenty-fifth of June, a Declaration of the Deputies of Pennsylvania, infavor of Independence, was read. On the twenty-eighth, the credentialsof the delegates from New Jersey, in which they were instructed to favorIndependence, were presented; and on the first of July similarinstructions to the Maryland delegates were laid before Congress. Atthis time Congress proceeded to consider the Declaration and resolutionreported by the committee. The Declaration was carefully considered, andmaterially amended in committee of the whole, on the first, second, third, and fourth, when it was finally adopted. It was then signed bythe president and secretary, and copies were transmitted to the severalcolonies. The order for its engrossment, and for the signature by everymember, was not passed until the nineteenth of July, and it was notreally signed until the second of August following. It is not likely, considering the circumstances, and the known character of the members ofCongress, among whom may be mentioned John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Rush, Robert Morris, Benjamin Harrison, Elbridge Gerry, JohnWitherspoon, a descendant of John Knox, the Scottish Reformer, CharlesCarroll, and Samuel Huntington, --all distinguished for coolness, probity, and patriotism, --that the immortal document can contain onethought or word unworthy its sacred associations, and the character ofthe American people!

And it is among the alarming symptoms of public sentiment that theDeclaration of Independence is by some publicly condemned, and by othersquietly accepted as entitled to just the consideration, and no more, that is given to an excited advocate's speech to a jury, or ademagogue's electioneering harangue, or the daily contribution of thepartisan editor to the stock of political capital that aids the electionof his favorite candidates. And upon this evidence is the nation and theworld to be taught that but little was meant by the assertions, "thatall men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator withcertain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and thepursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments areinstituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of thegoverned"? Would it not be wiser to test the government we have, by astatesmanlike application of the principles of the Declaration ofIndependence in the management of public affairs?

The Union is connected with the Declaration of Independence. The Unionis an institution: the Declaration of Independence is an assertion ofrights, and an exposition of principles. When principles aredisregarded, institutions do not, for any considerable time, retaintheir original value. And it would be the folly of other nations, without excuse in us, were we to worship blindly any institution, whatever its origin or its history. I do not, myself, doubt the value ofthe American Union. It was the necessity of the time when it was formed;it is the necessity of the present moment; it was, indeed, the claim ofour whole colonial life, and its recognition could be postponed nolonger when the colonies crossed the threshold of national existence. 

The colonies had carried on a correspondence among themselves uponimportant matters; the New England settlements formed a confederation in1643, that was the prototype of the present Union; and the convention atAlbany, in 1754, considered in connection with various resolutions anddeclarations, indicated a growing desire "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the commondefence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings ofliberty" to the successive generations that should occupy the Americancontinent. 

For these exalted purposes the Constitution was framed, and the Unionestablished; and the Constitution and the Union will remain as long asthese exalted purposes, with any considerable share of fidelity, aresecured. The Union will not be destroyed by declamation, nor candeclamation preserve it. Words have power only when they awaken aresponse in the minds of those who listen. The Union will be judged, finally, by its merits; and they are not powerful enemies for evil whoattack it through the press and from the rostrum; but rather they who, clothed with authority, brief or permanent, interpret the constitutionso as to defeat the end for which it was framed. Nor are they the bestfriends of the Union who lavishly bestow upon it nicely-wroughtencomiums, as though the gilding of rhetoric and the ornament of praisecould shield a human institution from the judgment of a free people; butrather they who, under Heaven, and in the presence of men, seek to sointerpret the constitution as, in the language and in the order of itspreamble, "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insuredomestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote thegeneral welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty" to themselves andtheir posterity. Words are powerless, and enemies--envious, jealous, ordeluded--are powerless, when they war upon a system of government thatsecures such exalted results. And, if in these later days of ournational existence patriotism has been weakened, respect and reverencefor the constitution and the Union have been diminished, it is becausethe actual government under the constitution has, in the judgment ofmany, failed to realize the government of the constitution. 

But let no one despair of the Republic. Men are now building better thanthey know; possibly, better than they wish. A great government, powerfulin its justice, and therefore to be respected and maintained, must alsobe powerful in its errors, prejudices, and wrongs, and therefore to bechanged and reformed in these respects. The declaration "that all menare created equal" is vital, and will live in the presence of allgovernments, strong as well as weak, hostile as well as friendly. It hasno respect for worldly authority, so evidently is it a direct emanationof the Divine Mind, and so does it harmonize with the highestmanifestations of the nature of man. But the Declaration of Independencedoes not, in this particular, assert that all men are created equal inheight or weight, equal in physical strength, intellectual power, ormoral worth. It is not dealing with these qualities at all, but with thenatural political rights and relations of men. In its view, all are bornfree from any political subordination to others on account of theaccidents or incidents of family or historic name. And hence it followsthat no man, by birth or nature, has any right in political affairs tocontrol his fellow-man; and hence it follows further, as there isneither subjection anywhere nor authority anywhere, that all men arecreated equal, that governments derive their "just powers from theconsent of the governed. " And hence it must, ere long, be demonstratedby this country, under the light of Christianity, and in the presence ofthe world, that man cannot have property in his fellow-man. 

And, again, let no one despair of the Republic or of the Union; nor letany, with rash confidence, believe that they are indestructible. Theyare human institutions built up through great sacrifices, and by theexercise of a high order of worldly wisdom. But the government is not anend--it is a means. The end is Liberty regulated by law; and the meanswill exist as long as the end thereof is attained. But, should the timeever come when the institutions of the country fail to secure theblessings of liberty to the living generation, and hold out no promiseof better things in the future, I know not that these institutions couldlonger exist, of that they ought longer to exist. To be sure, thehorizon is not always distinctly seen. The sky is not always clear;there are dark spots upon the disk of Liberty, as upon the sun in theheavens; but, like the sun, its presence is for all. And, whether therebe night, or clouds, or distance, its blessings can never be whollywithdrawn from the human race. 

It is not to be concealed, however, that the affections of the peoplehave been alienated from the American Union during the last seven years, as they were from the union with Great Britain during the years of ourcolonial life immediately previous to the Massacre in King-street, in1770. This solemn personal and public experience is fraught with a greatlesson. It should teach those who are intrusted with the administrationof public affairs to translate the language of the constitution into thestern realities of public policy, in the light of the Declaration ofIndependence, and of Liberty; and it should warn those who constitutethe government, and who judge it, not to allow their opposition to menor to measures to degenerate into indifference or hostility to theinstitutions of the country. 

A little distrust of ourselves, who see not beyond our own horizon, might sometimes lend charity to our judgment, and discretion to ouropposition; for, in the turmoil of politics, and the contests ofstatesmanship, even, it is not always

 "----the sea that sinks and shelves, But ourselves, That rook and rise With endless and uneasy motion, Now touching the very skies, Now sinking into the depths of ocean. "

And, as there must be in every society of men something of evil that canbe traced to the government, and something of good neglected that a wiseand efficient government might have accomplished, it is easy to build upan argument against an existing government, however good when comparedwith others. This is a narrow, superficial, unsatisfactory, dangerousview to take of public affairs. 

We should seek to comprehend the relations of the government, theprinciples on which it is founded; and, while we justly complain of itsdefects, and seek to remedy them, we ought also to compare it with othersystems that exist, or that might be established. This propositioninvolves an intelligent realization by the people of the character oftheir institutions; and I am thus led to express the apprehension thatthe popular political education of our day is inferior to that of therevolutionary era, and of the age that immediately succeeded it. 

There is, no doubt, a disposition and a tendency to extol the recentpast. The recollections of childhood are quite at variance with the realtruth, and tradition is often the dream of old age concerning theevents of early life. As rivers, hills, mountains, roads, and towns, areall magnified by the visions of childhood, it is not strange that menshould be also. Hence comes, in part, the popular belief in the superiorphysical strength and greater longevity of the people who lived fifty ora hundred years ago. Each generation is familiar with its predecessor;but of the one next remote it knows only the marked characters. Thosewho possessed great physical excellences remain; but they are not somuch the representatives of their generation as its exceptions. Theweak, the diseased, have fallen by the way; and, as there is an intimateconnection between physical and intellectual power, the remnant of anygeneration, whatever its common character, will retain adisproportionate number of strong-minded men. Hence it is not safe tojudge a generation as a whole by those who remain at the age of sixty orseventy years; especially if we reflect that public opinion andtradition are most likely to preserve the names and qualities of thosewho were distinguished for physical or mental power. Yet, after makingdue allowance for these exaggerations, I cannot escape the conclusionthat we have, as a people, deteriorated in average sound politicallearning; and I proceed to mention some of the causes and evidences ofour degeneracy, and of the superiority of our ancestors. 

I. _The political condition of the country has been essentiallychanged. _--General personal and family comfort, according to the ideasnow entertained, was not a feature of American society for one hundredand seventy years from the settlement at Plymouth. Life was a continualcontest--a contest with the forest, with the climate, with the Indians, and especially was it a continual contest with the mother country. Thecolonists sought to maintain their own rights without infringement, while they accorded to the sovereign his constitutional privileges. Conflicts were frequent, and apprehensions of conflict yet morefrequent. Hence those who had the conduct of public affairs werecompelled to give some attention to English history, and to theconstitutional law of Great Britain. Moreover, it was always importantto secure and keep a strong public sentiment on the side of liberty; andthere were usually in every town men who thoroughly investigatedquestions of public policy. There was one topic, more absorbing than anyother, that involved the study of the legal history and usage of GreatBritain, and a careful consideration of the general principles ofliberty; namely, the constitutional rights of a British subject. Herewas a broad field for inquiry, investigation, and study; and it wasfaithfully cultivated and gleaned. There has never been a politicaltopic for public discussion in America more important in itself, orbetter calculated to educate an American in a knowledge of his politicalrights, than the examination of the political relations of the subjectto the crown and parliament of Great Britain previous to the Declarationof Independence. It was not an abstraction. It had a practical value toevery man in the colonies, and it was the prominent feature of themasterly exposition made by the Massachusetts House of Representatives, to which I have already referred. And we can better estimate thepolitical education which the times furnished, when we consider that therevolutionary war was made logical and necessary through a knowledge ofpositions, facts, and arguments, scattered over the history of thecolonies. But, when our Independence had been established andrecognized, constitutions had been framed, and the governments of thestates and nation set in motion, the beauty and harmony of our politicalsystem seemed to render continued attention to political principles andthe rights of individual men unnecessary. Hence, we may anticipate thejudgment of impartial history in the admission that public attention wasgradually given to contests for office which did not always involve themaintenance of a fundamental principle of government, or the recognitionof an essential human right. It does not, however, follow, from thisadmission, that we are indifferent to our political lot, --occasionalcontests upon principle refute such a conjecture, --but that men are notanxious concerning those things which appear to be secure. And thedifferences of political parties of the last fifty years have not beenso much concerning the nature of human rights, as in regard to theinstitutions by which those rights can be best protected. Therefore ourpolitical questions have been questions of expediency rather than ofprinciple. And, if there is any foundation for the popular impressionthat public offices are conferred on men less eminently qualified togive dignity to public employments, the reason of this degeneracy--lessnoteworthy than it is usually represented--is to be found in thisconnection. 

Governments and political organizations accept the common law ofsociety. When an individual or a corporation is prosperous, places oftrust and emolument are often gained and occupied by unworthy men; but, when profits are diminished, or when they disappear entirely; whendividends are passed, when loss and bankruptcy are imminent, then, ifhope and courage still remain, places of importance are filled by theappointment of abler and worthier men. The charge made against officialcharacter, to whatever extent true, is better evidence of confidence andprosperity than it is of the degeneracy of the people; and a publicexigency, serious and long-continued, would call to posts ofresponsibility the highest talent and integrity which the country couldproduce. But it is, nevertheless, to be admitted as a necessaryconsequence of the facts already stated, and the views presented, thatthe average amount of sound political learning among those engaged inpublic employments is less than it was during the revolutionary era. Itis, however, also to be observed, that, when such learning seems to bespecially required, the people demand it and secure it. Hence the workof framing constitutions, even in the new states, has, in its execution, commanded the approval of political writers in this country and inEurope. And it must, also, be admitted that peace and prosperity rendersound political learning and great experience less necessary, and at thesame time multiply the number of men who are considered eligible tooffice. Candidates are put in nomination and elected because they havebeen good neighbors, honorable citizens, competent teachers of youth, orfaithful spiritual guides; or, possibly, because they have beensuccessful in business, are of the military or of the fire department, or because they are leaders and benefactors of special classes ofsociety. In ordinary times these facts are all worthy of considerationand real deference; but when, as in the Revolution, every place ofpublic service is a post of responsibility, or sacrifice, or danger, candidates and electors will not meet upon these grounds, but, disregarding such circumstances, the canvass will have special referenceto the work to be done. For civil employments, political learning andexperience are required; and for military posts, skill, sagacity, andcourage. It may be said that our whole colonial life was a preparatoryschool for the revolutionary contest; and, therefore, the major part ofthe enterprise, ambition, and patriotism, of the country, was given tothe training, studies, and pursuits, calculated to fit men for so sterna struggle. But now that other avenues are inviting in themselves, andpromise political preferment, we are liable to the criticism that ouryoung men, well educated in the schools and in a knowledge of the world, are not well grounded in political history and constitutional law, without which there can be no thorough and comprehensive statesmanship. And, as I pass from this branch of my subject, I may properly say that Ido not seek to limit the number of candidates for public office; forevery office is a school, and the public itself is a great and wiseteacher. Nor do I ask any to abandon the employments and duties, or toneglect the claims of business and of social life; but I seek to impressupon our youth a sense of the importance of adding something thereto. The knowledge of which I have spoken is valuable in the ordinary courseof public business, and absolutely essential in the exigences ofpolitical and national life. And it is with an eye single to thehappiness of individuals, and the welfare of the public, that I invitemy fellow-citizens, and especially the young men of the state, to takesomething from the hours of labor, where labor is excessive; orsomething from amusement, where amusement has ceased to be recreation;or something from light reading, which often is neither true, norreasonable, nor useful; or something from indolence and dissipation;and, in the minutes and hours thus gained, treasure up valuableknowledge for the circumstances and exigences of citizenship and publicoffice. 

II. _The claims of business and society are unfavorable to politicallearning. _--I assume it to be true of Massachusetts that the proportionof freehold farmers to the whole population is gradually diminishing, and that the amount of labor performed by each is gradually increasing. From the settlement of the country to the commencement of the presentcentury, there was a great deal of privation, hardship, and positivesuffering; but the claim for continuous labor was not exacting. 

The necessary articles of food and clothing were chiefly supplied fromthe land, and the majority did not contemplate any great accumulation ofworldly goods, but sought rather to place their political and religiousprivileges upon a sure foundation. Agriculture was in a rude state, andconsequently did not furnish steady employment to those engaged in it. It is only when there are valuable markets, scientific, or at leastcareful cultivation, and large profits, that the farmer can use hisevenings and long winters in his profession. These circumstances did notexist until the present century; and we have thus in this discussionfound both the motive and the opportunity for political learning amongour ancestors. 

It is also possible that the increased activity of business and businessmen is unfavorable to those studies and thoughts that are essential topolitical learning. Commerce and trade are stimulated by never-ceasingcompetition; and manufacturers are not free from the influence ofmarkets, and the necessity of variety, taste, and skill, in themanagement of their business. If the larger share of the physical andmental vigor of a man is given to business, his hours of leisure must behours of relaxation; and to most minds the study of history and ofkindred topics is by no means equivalent to recreation. Moreover, society presents numerous claims which are not easily disregarded. Fashionable life puts questions that but few people have the courage toanswer in the negative. Have you read the last novel? the new play? thereviews of the quarter? the magazines of the month? or the greatestsatire of the age? These questions have puzzled many young men intocustomary neglect of useful reading, that they may not admit theirignorance in the presence of those whom they respect or admire. 

But, everything valuable is expensive, and learning can be secured onlyby severe self-sacrifice. With our ancestors, after religious culture, historical and political reading was next immediately before them; butthe youth of this generation who seek such learning are compelled tomake their way without deference to the daily customs of society. Thereis no fashionable or tolerated society that invites young men to readthe history of England prior to the time when Macaulay begins. Nor doespublic sentiment recommend De Lolme on the British constitution, theFederalist, the writings of Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Story, andWebster, upon the constitution of the United States, and the practice ofthe government under it. Not but that these topics are considered in thehigher institutions of learning; but I address myself to those who haveenjoyed the advantages of our common schools only, where thoroughinstruction in national and general political history cannot be given. This kind of learning must be self-acquired, and acquired by sometemporary sacrifice; and the sooner, in the case of every young man, this sacrifice is contemplated and offered, the more acceptable anduseful it will be. And the acquisition of this kind of learning doesnot, in a majority of cases, admit of delay. It should be the work ofyouth and early manhood. The duties of life are so constant and pressingthat we find it difficult to abstract ourselves and our thoughts fromthe world; but, from the age of sixteen to the age of twenty-five, theattention may be concentrated upon special subjects, and their elementsmastered. 

By the Athenian law, minority terminated at the age of sixteen years;and Demosthenes, at that period of his life, commenced a course ofself-education by which he became the first orator of Athens, and theadmiration of the after-world. The father of Demosthenes died worthfourteen talents; and the son, though defrauded by his guardians, was, as his father had been, enrolled in the wealthiest class of citizens;yet he did not hesitate to subject himself to the severest mental andphysical discipline, in preparation for the great life he was to lead. 

"Demosthenes received, during his youth, the ordinary grammatical andrhetorical education of a wealthy Athenian. .. . It appears also that hewas, from childhood, of sickly constitution and feeble muscular frame;so that, partly from his own disinclination, partly from the solicitudeof his mother, he took little part, as boy or youth, in the exercises ofthe palæstra. .. . Such comparative bodily disability probably contributedto incite his thirst for mental and rhetorical acquisitions, as the onlyroad to celebrity open. But it at the same time disqualified him fromappropriating to himself the full range of a comprehensive Grecianeducation, as conceived by Plato, Isokrates, and Aristotle; an educationapplying alike to thought, word, and action--combining bodily strength, endurance, and fearlessness, with an enlarged mental capacity, and apower of making it felt by speech. 

"The disproportion between the physical energy and the mental force ofDemosthenes, beginning in childhood, is recorded and lamented in theinscription placed on his statue after his death. .. . Demosthenes puthimself under the teaching of Isæus; . .. And also profited largely bythe discourse of Plato, of Isokrates, and others. As an ardentaspirant, he would seek instruction from most of the best sources, theoretical as well as practical--writers as well as lecturers. But, besides living teachers, there was one of the last generation whocontributed largely to his improvement. He studied Thucydides withindefatigable labor and attention; according to one account, he copiedthe whole history eight times over with his own hand; according toanother, he learnt it all by heart, so as to be able to rewrite it frommemory, when the manuscript was accidentally destroyed. Without minutelycriticizing these details, we ascertain, at least, that Thucydides wasthe peculiar object of his study and imitation. How much the compositionof Demosthenes was fashioned by the reading of Thucydides, reproducingthe daring, majestic, and impressive phraseology, yet without theoverstrained brevity and involutions of that great historian, --andcontriving to blend with it a perspicuity and grace not inferior toLysias, --may be seen illustrated in the elaborate criticism of therhetor Dionysius. 

"While thus striking out for himself a bold and original style, Demosthenes had still greater difficulties to overcome in regard to theexternal requisites of an orator. He was not endowed by nature, likeÆschines, with a magnificent voice; nor, like Demades, with a ready flowof vehement improvisation. His thoughts required to be put together bycareful preparation; his voice was bad, and even lisping; his breathshort; his gesticulation ungraceful; moreover, he was overawed andembarrassed by the manifestations of the multitude. .. . The energy andsuccess with which Demosthenes overcame his defects, in such manner asto satisfy a critical assembly like the Athenians, is one of the mostmemorable circumstances in the general history of self-education. Repeated humiliation and repulse only spurred him on to fresh solitaryefforts for improvement. He corrected his defective elocution byspeaking with pebbles in his mouth; he prepared himself to overcome thenoise of the assembly by declaiming in stormy weather on the sea-shoreof Phalerum; he opened his lungs by running, and extended his powers ofholding breath by pronouncing sentences in marching up-hill; hesometimes passed two or three months without interruption in asubterranean chamber, practising night and day either in composition ordeclamation, and shaving one-half of his head in order to disqualifyhimself from going abroad. "[3] Yet all this effort and sacrifice wereaccompanied by repeated and humiliating failures; and it was not untilhe was twenty-seven years of age that the great orator of the worldachieved his first success before the Athenian assembly. 

But how can the youth of this age hope to be followers, even at adistance, of Demosthenes, and of those his peers, who, by eloquence, poetry, art, science, and general learning, have added dignity to therace, and given lustre to generations separated by oceans and centuries, unless they are animated by a spirit of progress, and cheered by a faiththat shall be manifested in the disposition and the power to overcomethe obstacles that lie in every one's path?

Such a course of training requires individual effort and personalself-sacrifice. It would not be wise to follow the plan of the Athenianorator; he adapted his training to his personal circumstances, and thecustoms of the country. His history is chiefly valuable for the lessonsof self-reliance, and the example of perseverance under discouragements, that it furnishes. But it is always a solemn duty to hold up beforeyouth noble models of industry, perseverance, and success, that they maybe stimulated to the work of life by the assurance of history that, "Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each to-morrow Find us further than to-day. "

III. _The popular reading of the day does not contribute essentially tothe education of the citizen and statesman. _--It is not, of course, expected that every man is to qualify himself for the life of astatesman; but it does seem necessary for all to be so well instructedin political learning as to possess the means of forming a reasonableand philosophical opinion of the policy of the government. It is asdiscreditable to the intellect and judgment of a free people to complainof that which is right in itself, and rests upon established principlesof right, as to submit without resistance or murmur to usurpation ormisgovernment. I do not mean to undervalue the periodical press; but itmust always assume something in regard to its readers, and in politicsit must assume that the principles of government and the history ofnational institutions are known and understood. 

But the young man should subject himself to a systematic course oftraining; and I know of nothing more valuable in political studies thana thorough acquaintance with English history. Our principles ofgovernment were derived from England; and it is in the history of themother country that the best discussion of principles is found, as inthat country many of the contests for liberty occurred. But, as ourgovernment is the outgrowth rather than a copy of British principles andinstitutions, the American citizen is not prepared for his duties untilhe has made himself familiar with American history, in all itsdepartments. How ill-suited, then, for the duties of citizenship andpublic life, in the formation of taste and habits of thought, is much ofthe reading of the present time! And I may here call attention to thefact that each town in Massachusetts is invested with authority toestablish a public library by taxation. This, it seems to me, is one ofthe most important legislative acts of the present decennial period;and, indeed, a public library is essential to the view I am taking ofthe necessity and importance of political education. Private librariesexist, but they are not found in every house, nor can every person enjoytheir advantages. Public libraries are open to all; and, when theselection of books is judicious, they furnish opportunities foreducation hardly less to be prized than the common schools themselves. The public library is not only an aid to general learning, a contributorto political intelligence and power, but it is an efficient supporter ofsound morals, and all good neighborhood among men. 

If the public will not offer to its youth valuable reading, such as itsexperience, its wisdom, its knowledge of the claims of society, itsmorality may select, shall the public complain if its young men andwomen are tempted by frivolous and pernicious mental occupations? It is, moreover, the duty of the public to furnish the means of self-education, especially in the science of government; and political learning, for themost part, must be gained after the school-going period of life haspassed. 

Let American liberty be an intelligent liberty, and therefore aself-sustaining liberty. Freedom, more or less complete, has been foundin two conditions of life. Man, in a rude state, where his conditionseemed to be normal, rather than the result of a process of mental andmoral degeneracy, has often possessed a large share of independence; butthis should by no means be confounded with what in America is calledliberty. The independence of the savage, or nomad, is manifested in theabsence of law; but the liberty of an American citizen is the power todo whatever may be beneficial to himself, and not injurious to hisneighbor nor to the state. The first leaves self-protection andself-regulation to the individual, while the latter restrains theaggressive tendencies of all for the security of each. The first isnatural equality without law; the second is natural equality before thelaw. With the first, might makes right; with the latter, right makesmight. With the first, the power of the law, or of the will of anindividual or clan, is in the rigor and success of execution; with thelatter, the power of the law is in the justice of its demand. We, as apeople, have passed the savage and nomadic state, and can return to itonly after a long and melancholy process of decay and change, out ofwhich ultimately might come a new and savage race of men. This, then, isnot our immediate, even if it be a possible danger. But we are to guardagainst intellectual, political, and moral degeneracy. We are, throughfamily, religious, and public education, to take security of thechildhood and youth of the land for the preservation of the institutionswe have, and for the growth, greatness, and justice, of the republic. Liberty in America, if you will admit the distinction, is a growth andnot a creation. The institutions of liberty in America have the samecharacter. By many centuries of trial, struggle, and contest, throughmany years of experience, sometimes joyous, and sometimes sad, the factand the institutions of liberty in America have been evolved. It has notbeen a work of destruction and creation, but a process of change andprogress. And so it must ever be. Reformation does not often followdestruction; and they who seek to destroy the institutions of a countryare not its friends in fact, however they may be in purpose. Ignorancecan destroy, but intelligence is required to reform or build up. Letthe prejudice against learning, not common now, but possibly existing insome minds, be forever banished. Learning is the friend of liberty. Ofthis America has had evidence in her own history, and in her observationof the experience of others. The literary institutions and thecultivated men of America, like Milton and Hampden in England, preferred

 "Hard liberty before the easy yoke Of servile pomp. "

It was the intelligence of the country that everywhere uttered andeverywhere accepted the declaration of the town of Boston, in therevolutionary struggle, "We can endure poverty, but we disdain slavery. "Ignorance is quicksand on which no stable political structure can bebuilt; and I predict the future greatness of our beloved state, in thosehistorical qualities that outlast the ages, from the fact that she isnot tempted by her extent of territory, salubrity of climate, fertilityof soil, or by the presence and promise of any natural source of wealth, to falter in her devotion to learning and liberty. And I anticipate forMassachusetts a career of influence beneficial to all, whether disputedor accepted, when I reflect that, with less good fortune in the presenceand combination of learning and liberty, Greece, Rome, Venice, Holland, and England, enjoyed power disproportionate to their respectivepopulations, territory, and natural resources. And, while the object forwhich we are convened may pardon something to local attachments andstate pride, the day and the occasion ought not to pass without agrateful and hearty acknowledgment of the interest manifested by otherstates and sections in the cause of general learning, and especially incommon-school education. The Canadas are our rivals; the states of theWest are our rivals; the states of the South are our rivals; and, wereour greater experience and better opportunities reckoned against us, Iknow not that there would be much in our systems of education of whichwe could properly boast. It is, indeed, possible that North Carolina, untoward circumstances having their due weight, has made more progressin education, since 1840, than any other state of the Union. 

Education is not only favorable to liberty, but, when associated withliberty, it is the basis of the Union and power of the American states. As citizens of the republic, we need a better knowledge of our nationalinstitutions, a better knowledge of the institutions of the severalstates, a more intimate acquaintance with one another, and the power ofjudging wisely and justly the policies and measures of each and all. These ends, aided or accomplished by general learning, will sostrengthen the Union as no force of armies can--will so strengthen theUnion as that by no force of armies can it be overthrown. 

FOOTNOTE:

[3] Grote's Hist. , vol. Xi. , p. 266, et seq. 

MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL FUND. 

[Extract from the Twenty-Second Annual Report of the Secretary of theBoard of Education. ]

The Massachusetts School Fund was established by the Legislature of 1834(stat. 1834, chap. 169), and it was provided by the act that all moneysin the treasury on the first of January, 1835, derived from the sale oflands in the State of Maine, and from the claim of the state on thegovernment of the United States for military services, and not otherwiseappropriated, together with fifty per centum of all moneys thereafter tobe received from the sale of lands in Maine, should be appropriated toconstitute a permanent fund, for the aid and encouragement of CommonSchools. It was provided that the fund should never exceed one millionof dollars, and that the income only should be appropriated to theobject in view. The mode of distribution was referred to a subsequentLegislature. It was, however, provided that a greater sum should neverbe paid to any city or town than was raised therein for the support ofcommon schools. There are two points in the law that deserveconsideration. First, the object of the fund was the aid andencouragement of the schools, and not their support; and secondly, thelimit of appropriation to the respective towns was the amount raised byeach. There is an apparent inconsistency in this restriction when it isconsidered that the income of the entire fund would have been equal toonly forty-three cents for each child in the state between the ages offive and fifteen years, and that each town raised, annually, bytaxation, a larger sum; but this inconsistency is to be explained by thefact that the public sentiment, as indicated by resolves reported by thesame committee for the appointment of commissioners on the subject, tended to a distribution of money among the towns according to theireducational wants. 

As early as 1828, the Committee on Education of the House ofRepresentatives, in a Report made by Hon. W. B. Calhoun, declared, "Thatmeans should be devised for the establishment of a fund having in viewnot the _support_, but the _encouragement_, of the common schools, andthe instruction of school teachers. " This report was made in the monthof January, and in February following the same committee say: "Theestablishment of a fund should look to the support of an institution forthe instruction of school teachers in each county in the commonwealth, and to the distribution, annually, to all the towns, of such a sum forthe benefit of the schools as shall simply operate as an encouragementto proportionate efforts on the part of the towns. A fund which shouldbe so large as to suffice for the support of the whole schoolestablishment of the state, as is the case in Connecticut, would, in theopinion of the committee, be rather detrimental than advantageous; itwould only serve to draw off from the mass of the community thatanimating interest which will ever be found indispensable where aresolute feeling upon the subject is wished for or expected. Such aresult is, in every sense, to be deprecated, and whatever may tend toit, even remotely, should be anxiously avoided. A fund which shouldadmit of the distribution of one thousand dollars to any town whichshould raise three thousand dollars, in any manner within itself, or inthat proportion, would operate as a strong incentive to high efforts;and, if to this should be added the further requisition of a faithfulreturn to the Legislature, annually, of the condition of the schools, the consequences could not be otherwise than decidedly favorable. " Thisreport was accompanied by a bill "for the establishment of theMassachusetts Literary Fund. " The bill followed the report in regard tothe proportionate amount of the income of the fund to be distributed tothe several towns. This bill failed to become a law. 

In January, 1833, the House of Representatives, under an orderintroduced by Mr. Marsh, of Dalton, appointed a committee "to considerthe expediency of investing a portion of the proceeds of the sales ofthe lands of this commonwealth in a permanent fund, the interest ofwhich should be annually applied, as the Legislature should from time totime direct, for the encouragement of common schools. " The adoption ofthis order was the incipient measure that led to the establishment ofthe Massachusetts School Fund. On the twenty-third of the same month, Mr. Marsh submitted the report of the committee. The committee actedupon the expectation that all moneys then in the treasury derived fromthe sale of public lands, and the entire proceeds of all subsequentsales, were to be set apart as a fund for the encouragement of commonschools; but, as blanks were left in the bill reported, they seem not tohave been sanguine of the liberality of the Legislature. The cash andnotes on hand amounted to $234, 418. 32, and three and a half millions ofacres of land unsold amounted, at the estimated price of forty cents peracre, to $1, 400, 000 more; making together a fund with a capital of$1, 634, 418. 32. The income was estimated at $98, 065. 09. It was alsostated that there were 140, 000 children in the state between the ages offive and fifteen years, and it was therefore expected that the income ofthe fund would permit a distribution to the towns of seventy cents foreach child between the afore-named ages. This certainly was a liberalexpectation, compared with the results that have been attained. Thedistributive share of each child has amounted to only about one-third ofthe sum then contemplated. The committee were careful to say, "It is notintended, in establishing a school fund, to relieve towns and parentsfrom the principal expense of education; but to manifest our interestin, and to give direction, energy, and stability to, institutionsessential to individual happiness and the public welfare. " Inconclusion, the committee make the following inquiries and suggestions:

"Should not our common schools be brought nearer to their constitutionalguardians? Shall we not adopt measures which shall bind, in gratefulalliance, the youth to the governors of the commonwealth? We considerthe application, annually, of the interest of the proposed fund, as theestablishment of a direct communication betwixt the Legislature and theschools; as each representative can carry home the bounty of thegovernment, and bring back from the schools returns of gratitude andproficiency. They will then cheerfully render all such information asthe Legislature may desire. A new spirit would animate the community, from which we might hope the most happy results. This endowment wouldgive the schools consequence and character, and would correct andelevate the standard of education. 

"Therefore, to preserve the purity, extend the usefulness, andperpetuate the benefits of intelligence, we recommend that a fund beconstituted, and the distribution of the income so ordered as to open adirect and more certain intercourse with the schools; believing that bythis measure their wants would be better understood and supplied, theadvantages of education more highly appreciated and improved, and theblessings of wisdom, virtue, and knowledge, carried home to the firesideof every family, to the bosom of every child. " The bill reported by thiscommittee was read twice, and then, upon Mr. Marsh's motion, referred tothe next Legislature. 

In 1834, the bill from the files of the last General Court to establishthe Massachusetts School Fund, and so much of the petition of theinhabitants of Seekonk as related to the same subject, were referred tothe Committee on Education. 

In the month of February, Hon. A. D. Foster, of Worcester, chairman ofthe committee, made a report, and submitted a bill which was the basisof the law of March 31, 1834. The committee were sensible of theimportance of establishing a fund for the encouragement of the commonschools. These institutions were languishing for support, and in a greatdegree destitute of the public sympathy. There were no means ofcommunication between the government and the schools, and in somesections towns and districts had set themselves resolutely against allinterference by the state. In 1832, an effort was made to ascertain theamount raised for the support of schools. Returns were received fromonly ninety-nine towns, showing an annual average expenditure of onedollar and ninety-eight cents for each pupil. 

The interest in this subject does not seem to have been confined to theLegislature, nor even to have originated there. The report of thecommittee contains an extract from a communication made by Rev. WilliamC. Woodbridge, then editor of the _American Annals of Education andInstruction_. His views were adopted by the committee, and theycorresponded with those which have been already quoted. The dangers of alarge fund were presented, and the example of Connecticut, and somestates of the West, where school funds had diminished rather thanincreased the public interest in education, was tendered as a warningagainst a too liberal appropriation of public money. On the other hand, Mr. Woodbridge claimed that the establishment of a fund which shouldencourage efforts rather than supply all wants, and, without sustainingthe schools, give aid to the people in proportion to their owncontributions, was a measure indispensable to the cause of education. Healso referred to the experience of New Jersey, which had made a generalappropriation to be paid to those towns that should contribute for thesupport of their own schools; but, such was the public indifference, that after many years the money was still in the treasury. Hence it wasinferred that all these measures were ineffectual, and that meretaxation was, upon the whole, to be preferred to any imperfect system. But the example of New York was approved, where the distribution of asmall sum, equal to about twenty cents for each pupil, had increased thepublic interest, and wrought what then seemed to be an effectual andpermanent revolution in educational affairs. These facts and reasonings, say the committee, seem to be important and sound, and to result inthis, --that no provision ought to be made which shall diminish thepresent amount of money raised by taxes for the schools, or the interestfelt by the people in their prosperity; that a fund may be so used assatisfactorily to increase both--and that further information in regardto our schools is requisite to determine the best mode of doing this. These opinions are supported generally by the judgment of the presentgeneration. Yet it is to be remarked, by way of partial dissent, thatthe public apathy in Connecticut and the states of the West was not in agreat degree the effect of the funds, but was rather a coëxisting, independent fact. It ought not, therefore, to have been expected thatthe mere offer of money for educational purposes, while the people hadno just idea of the importance of education or of the means by which itcould be acquired, would lead them even to accept the proffered boon;and it certainly, in their judgment, furnished no reason forself-taxation. It is, however, no doubt true that the power of localtaxation for the support of schools is in its exercise a means ofprovoking interest in education; and it is reasonable to assume that apublic system of instruction will never be vigorous and efficient at alltimes and under all circumstances where the right of local taxation doesnot exist or is not exercised. When the entire expenditure is derivedfrom the income of public funds, or obtained by a universal tax, and theproceeds distributed among the towns, parishes, or districts, there willoften be general conditions of public sentiment unfavorable, if nothostile, to schools; and, there will always be found in any state, however small, local indifference and lethargy which render all gifts, donations, and distributions, comparatively valueless. The subject ofself-taxation annually is important in connection with a system of freeeducation. It is the experience of the states of this country that thepeople themselves are more generous in the use of this power than aretheir representatives; and it is also true that when the power has beenexercised by the people, there is usually more interest awakened inregard to modes of expenditure, and more zeal manifested in securingadequate returns. The private conversations and public debates oftenarouse an interest which would never have been manifested had the meansof education been furnished by a fund, or been distributed as theproceeds of a general tax assessed by the government of the state. 

I have no doubt that much of our success is due to the fact that in allthe towns the question of taxation is annually submitted to the people. It is quite certain that the sum of our municipal appropriations nevercould have been increased from $387, 124. 17, in 1837, to $1, 341, 252. 03, in 1858, without the influence of the statistical tables that areappended to the Annual Reports of the Board of Education; and it is alsotrue that the materials for these tables could not have been securedwithout the agency of the school fund. Our experience as a stateconfirms the wisdom of the reports of 1833 and 1834; and I unreservedlyconcur in the opinion that a fund ought not to be sufficient for thesupport of schools, but that such a fund is needed to give encouragementto the towns, to stimulate the people to make adequate localappropriations, to secure accurate and complete returns from thecommittees, and finally to provide means for training teachers, and fordefraying the necessary expenses of the educational department. The lawof 1834, establishing the school fund, was reënacted in the RevisedStatutes (chap. 11, sects. 13 and 14). The Revised Statutes (chap. 23, sects. 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, and 67) also required that returns should bemade, each year, from all the towns of the commonwealth, of thecondition of the schools in various important particulars. The income ofthe fund was to be apportioned among the towns that had raised, thepreceding year, the sum of one dollar by taxation for each pupil, andhad complied with the laws in other respects; and it was to bedistributed according to the number of persons in each between the agesof four and sixteen years. These provisions have since been frequentlyand variously modified; but at all times the state has imposed similarconditions upon the towns. By the statute of 1839, chapter 56, theincome of the school fund was to be apportioned among those towns thathad raised by taxation for the support of schools the sum of one dollarand twenty-five cents for each person between the ages of four andsixteen years; and, by the law of 1849, chapter 117, the income was tobe apportioned among those towns which had raised by taxation the sum ofone dollar and fifty cents for the education of each person between theages of five and fifteen years. This provision is now in force. By anact of the Legislature, passed April 15th, 1846, it was provided thatall sums of money which should thereafter be drawn from the treasury, for educational purposes, should be considered as a charge upon themoiety of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands set apart forthe purpose of constituting a school fund. This provision continued inforce until the reörganization of the fund, in 1854. By the law of thatyear (chap. 300), it was provided that one half of the annual income ofthe fund should be apportioned and distributed among the towns accordingto the then existing provisions of law, and that the educationalexpenses before referred to should be chargeable to and paid from theother half of the income of said fund. These provisions are now inforce. 

The limitation of the act of 1834, establishing the fund, and of theRevised Statutes, was removed by the law of 1851, chapter 112, and theamount of the fund was then fixed at one million and five hundredthousand dollars. By the act of 1854 the principal was limited to twomillions of dollars. The Constitutional Convention of 1853 had, withgreat unanimity, declared it to be the duty of the Legislature toprovide for the increase of the school fund to the sum of two millionsof dollars; and, though the proposed constitution was rejected by thepeople, the provision concerning the fund was generally, if notuniversally, acceptable. Under these circumstances, the legislature of1854 may be said to have acted in conformity to the known opinion andpurpose of the state. 

On the 1st of June, 1858, the principal of the fund was $1, 522, 898. 41, including the sum of $1, 843. 68, added during the year preceding thatdate. In this statement no notice is taken of the rights of the schoolfund in the Western Railroad Loan Sinking Fund. 

It may be observed that the committee of 1833 contemplated theestablishment of a fund, with a capital of $1, 634, 418. 32, and yet, aftertwenty-five years, the Massachusetts School Fund amounts to only$1, 522, 898. 41. Its present means of increase are limited to the excessof one-half of the annual income over the current educational expenses. The increase for the year 1856-7 was $4, 142. 90; and for the year 1857-8, $1, 843. 68. With this resource only, and at this rate of increase, aboutone hundred and sixty years will be required for the augmentation of thecapital to the maximum contemplated by existing laws. But theeducational wants of the state are such that even this scanty supplymust soon cease. It is then due to the magnitude of the proposition forthe considerable and speedy increase of the school fund, that itsnecessity, if possible, or its utility, at least, should besatisfactorily demonstrated; and it is for this purpose that I havealready presented a brief sketch of its history in connection with thelegislation of the commonwealth, and that I now proceed to set forth itsrelations to the practical work of public instruction. 

When the fund was instituted, public sentiment in regard to educationwas lethargic, if not retrograding. The mere fact of the action of theLegislature lent new importance to the cause of learning, inspired itsadvocates with additional zeal, gave efficiency to previous andsubsequent legislation, and, as though there had been a new creation, evoked order out of chaos. 

Previous to 1834 there was no trustworthy information concerning theschools of the state. The law of 1826, chapter 143, section 8, requiredeach town to make a report to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, of theamount of money paid, the number of schools, the aggregate number ofmonths that the schools of each city and town were kept, the number ofmale and female teachers, the whole number of pupils, the number ofprivate schools and academies and the number of pupils therein, theamount of compensation paid to the instructors of private schools andacademies, and the number of persons between the ages of fourteen andtwenty-one years who were unable to read and write. The Legislature didnot provide a penalty for neglect of this provision, nor does there seemto have been any just method of compelling obedience. The Secretary ofthe Commonwealth sent out blank forms of returns, and replies werereceived from two hundred and fourteen towns, while eighty-eight wereentirely silent. 

The returns received furnish a series of interesting facts for the year1826. There were one thousand seven hundred and twenty-six districtschools, supported at an expense of two hundred and twenty-six thousandtwo hundred and nineteen dollars and ninety cents ($226, 219. 90), whilethere were nine hundred and fifty-three academies and private schoolsmaintained at a cost of $192, 455. 10. The whole number of childrenattending public schools was 117, 186, and the number educated inprivate schools and academies was 25, 083. The expense, therefore, was$7. 67 per pupil in the private schools, and only $1. 93 each in thepublic schools. These facts are indicative of the condition of publicsentiment. About one-sixth of the children of the state were educated inacademies and private schools, at a cost equal to about six-sevenths ofthe amount paid for the education of the remaining five-sixths, whoattended the public schools. The returns also showed that there were2, 974 children between the ages of seven and fourteen years who did notattend school, and 530 persons over fourteen years of age who wereunable to read and write. The incompleteness of these returns detractsfrom their value; but, as those towns where the greatest interestexisted were more likely to respond to the call of the Legislature, itis probable that the actual condition of the whole state was below thatof the two hundred and eighty-eight towns. The interest which the law of1826 had called forth was temporary; and in March, 1832, the Committeeon Education, to whom was referred an order with instructions to inquireinto the expediency of providing a fund to furnish, in certain cases, common schools with apparatus, books, and such other aid as may benecessary to raise the standard of common school education, say thatthey desire more accurate knowledge than could then be obtained. Thereturns required by law were in many cases wholly neglected, and inothers they were inaccurately made. In the year 1831 returns werereceived from only eighty-six towns. In order to obtain the desiredinformation, a special movement was made by the Legislature. The reportof the committee was printed in all the newspapers that published thelaws of the commonwealth, and the Secretary was directed to prepare andpresent to the Legislature an abstract of the returns which should bereceived from the several towns for the year 1832. The result of thisextraordinary effort was seen in returns from only ninety-nine of threehundred and five towns, and even a large part of these were confessedlyinaccurate or incomplete. They present, however, some remarkable facts. 

The following table, prepared from the returns of 1832, shows therelative standing and cost of public and private schools in a part ofthe principal towns. It appears that the towns named in the table wereeducating rather more than two-thirds of their children in the publicschools, at an expense of $2. 88 each, and nearly one-third in privateschools, at a cost of $12. 70 each, and that the total expenditure forpublic instruction was about thirty-six per cent. Of the outlay foreducational purposes. 

Column Headings:A - Amount paid for public instruction during the year. B - Whole No. Of Pupils in the Public Schools in the course of the yr. C - Number of Academies and Private Schools. D - Number of Pupils in Academies and Private Schools and not attendingPublic Schools. E -Estimated amount of compensation of Instructors of Academies andPrivate Schools. 

==============+============+========+=====+=======+============ TOWNS. | A | B | C | D | E--------------+------------+--------+-----+-------+------------Beverly, | $1, 800 00 | 580 | 28 | 490 | $2, 365 33Bradford, | 750 00 | 600 | 9 | 177 | 1, 725 00Danvers, | 2, 000 00 | 873 | 6 | 150 | 1, 500 00Marblehead, | 2, 200 00 | 650 | 31 | 650 | 3, 800 00Cambridge, | 8, 600 00 | 970 | 16 | 441 | 5, 782 00Medford, | 1, 200 00 | 284 | 6 | 151 | 2, 372 00Newton, | 1, 600 00 | 542 | 3 | 100 | 2, 975 00Amherst, | 850 00 | 556 | 2 | 270 | 4, 600 00Springfield, | 3, 600 00 | 1, 957 | 4 | 800 | 2, 500 00Greenfield, | 633 75 | 216 | 2 | 65 | 1, 400 00Dorchester, | 2, 599 00 | 613 | 15 | 124 | 1, 800 00Quincy, | 1, 800 00 | 465 | 7 | 106 | 2, 741 50Roxbury, | 4, 450 00 | 836 | 12 | 313 | 8, 218 00New Bedford, | 4, 000 00 | 1, 268 | 15 | 537 | 6, 300 00Hingham, | 2, 144 00 | 703 | 8 | 180 | 2, 625 00Provincetown, | 584 32 | 450 | 4 | 140 | 800 00Edgartown, | 450 00 | 350 | 10 | 100 | 2, 700 00Nantucket, | 2, 633, 40 | 882 | 50 | 1, 084 | 10, 795 00 |------------|--------|-----|-------+------------18 Towns, | $36, 894 47 | 12, 795 | 228 | 5, 378 | $64, 948 83==============+============+========+=====+=======+============

The evidence is sufficient that the public schools were in a deplorableand apparently hopeless condition. 

The change that has been effected in the eighteen towns named may beseen by comparing the following table with the one already given. In1832, 64 per cent. Of the amount paid for education was expended inacademies and private schools, while in 1858 only 24 per cent. Was soexpended. In the same period the amount raised for public schoolsincreased from less than thirty-seven thousand dollars to more than twohundred and fifty-nine thousand dollars. At the first period, theattendance of pupils upon academies and private schools was nearly 30per cent. Of the whole number, while in 1858 it was only 8 per cent. Theprivate schools of some of these towns were established recently, andare sustained in a degree by pupils who are not inhabitants of thestate, but who have come among us for the purpose of enjoying theculture which our teachers and schools, private as well as public, areable to furnish. If, as seems probable, the number of foreign pupils wasless in 1832 than in 1858, the decrease of pupils in private schoolswould be greater than is indicated by the tables. The cost of education, as it appears by this table, is rather more than thirty dollars perpupil in the private schools, and only eight dollars and forty-ninecents in the public schools. In the following table, Bradford includesGroveland, Danvers includes South Danvers, Springfield includesChicopee, and Roxbury includes West Roxbury. This is rendered necessaryfor the purposes of comparison, as Groveland, South Danvers, Chicopee, and West Roxbury, have been incorporated since 1832. 

Column Headings:A - Amount paid for Public Schools in 1857-8, including tax, income ofSurplus Revenue, and of State School Fund, when such income isappropriated for such schools, and exclusive of sums paid forschool-houses. B - Whole No. Of pupils attending Public Schools in 1857-8--the largestNo. Returned as in attendance during any one term. C - Number of incorporated and unincorporated Academies and PrivateSchools returned in 1858. D - Estimated attendance in Academies and Private Schools in 1857-8. E - Estimated amount of tuition paid in Academies and Priv. Schools in1857-8. 

=============+=============+========+=====+=======+============TOWNS. | A | B | C | D | E-------------+-------------+--------+-----+-------+------------Beverly, | $5, 748 20 | 1, 114 | 1 | 10 | $100 00Bradford, | 2, 416 47 | 513 | 2 | 84 | 1, 720 00Danvers, | 14, 829 52 | 2, 066 | 1 | 40 | 360 00Marblehead, | 7, 311 10 | 1, 188 | 6 | 160 | 1, 390 00Cambridge, | 37, 420 86 | 4, 710 | 14 | 400 | 15, 000 00Medford, | 7, 794 44 | 837 | 5 | 130 | 3, 800 00Newton, | 12, 263 50 | 1, 138 | 8 | 308 | 22, 800 00Amherst, | 2, 142 80 | 536 | 5 | 121 | 3, 934 00Springfield, | 27, 324 84 | 3, 864 | 6 | -- | --Greenfield, | 2, 627 50 | 589 | 2 | 25 | 1, 800 00Dorchester, | 22, 338 51 | 1, 795 | 1 | 31 | 600 00Quincy, | 8, 861 46 | 1, 260 | 2 | 20 | 225 00Roxbury, | 50, 000 00 | 4, 400 | 25 | 561 | 10, 600 00New Bedford, | 36, 074 25 | 3, 548 | 20 | 434 | 15, 074 00Hingham, | 4, 904 13 | 728 | 2 | 71 | 1, 717 56Provincetown, | 3, 147 26 | 689 | -- | -- | --Edgartown, | 2, 578 63 | 380 | 8 | 96 | 200 00Nantucket, | 11, 596 27 | 1, 198 | 13 | 259 | 3, 466 23-------------+-------------+--------+-----+-------+------------Totals, | $259, 379 74 | 30, 553 | 121 | 2, 750 | $82, 786 79=============+=============+========+=====+=======+============

The Legislature of 1834 acted with wisdom and energy. The school fundhaving been established, the towns were next required to furnish answersto certain questions that were substituted for the requisition of thestatute of 1826, and any town whose committee failed to make the returnwas to be deprived of its share of the income of the school fund, whenever it should be first distributed. (Res. 1834, chap. 78. )

Those measures were in the highest degree salutary. There were 305 townsin the state, and returns were received from 261. There was still a wantof accuracy and completeness; but from this time forth the state securedwhat had never before been attained, --intelligent legislation by thegovernment, and intelligent coöperation and support by the people. 

In December, 1834, the Secretary of the Commonwealth prepared anaggregate of the returns received, of which the following is a copy:

Number of towns from which returns have been received, 261Number of school districts, 2, 251Number of male children attending school from four to sixteen years of age, 67, 499Number of female children attending school from four to sixteen years of age, 63, 728Number over sixteen and under twenty-one unable to read and write, 158Number of male instructors, 1, 967Number of female instructors, 2, 388Amount raised by tax to support schools, $810, 178 87Amount raised by contribution to support schools, 15, 141 25Average number of scholars attending academies and private schools, 24, 749Estimated amount paid for tuition in academies and private schools, $276, 575 75Local funds--Yes, 71Local funds--No, 181

Thus, by the institution of the school fund, provision was made for asystem of annual returns, from which has been drawn a series ofstatistical tables, that have not only exhibited the school system as awhole and in its parts, but have also contributed essentially to itsimprovement. 

These statistics have been so accurate and complete, for many years, asto furnish a safe basis for legislation; and they have at the same timebeen employed by the friends of education as means for awakening localinterest, and stimulating and encouraging the people to assume freelyand bear willingly the burdens of taxation. It is now easy for eachtown, or for any inhabitant, to know what has been done in any othertown; and, as a consequence, those that do best are a continual exampleto those that, under ordinary circumstances, might be indifferent. Theestablishment and efficiency of the school-committee system is due alsoto the same agency. There are, I fear, some towns that would now neglectto choose a school committee, were there not a small annual distributionof money by the state; but, in 1832, the duty was often eitherneglected altogether, or performed in such a manner that no appreciablebenefit was produced. The superintending committee is the most importantagency connected with our system of instruction. In some portions of thestate the committees are wholly, and in others they are partly, responsible for the qualifications of teachers; they everywheresuperintend and give character to the schools, and by their annualreports they exert a large influence over public opinion. The people nowusually elect well-qualified men; and it is believed that the extractsfrom the local reports, published annually by the Board of Education, constitute the best series of papers in the language upon the varioustopics that have from time to time been considered. [4] By thepublication of these abstracts, the committees, and indeed the peoplegenerally, are made acquainted with everything that has been done, or isat any time doing, in the commonwealth. Improvements that wouldotherwise remain local are made universal; information in regard togeneral errors is easily communicated, and the errors themselves arespeedily removed, while the system is, in all respects, renderedhomogeneous and efficient. 

Nor does it seem to be any disparagement of Massachusetts to assumethat, in some degree, she is indebted to the school fund for theconsistent and steady policy of the Legislature, pursued for more thantwenty years, and executed by the agency of the Board of Education. Inthis period, normal schools have been established, which have educated alarge number of teachers, and exerted a powerful and ever increasinginfluence in favor of good learning. Teachers' institutes have beenauthorized, and the experiment successfully tested. Agents of the Boardof Education have been appointed, so that it is now possible, by the aidof both these means, as is shown by accompanying returns and statements, to afford, each year, to the people of a majority of the towns anopportunity to confer with those who are specially devoted to the workof education. In all this period of time, the Legislature has neverbeen called upon to provide money for the expenses which have thus beenincurred; and, though a rigid scrutiny has been exercised over theexpenditures of the educational department, measures for the promotionof the common schools have never been considered in relation to thegeneral finances of the commonwealth. While some states have hesitated, and others have vacillated, Massachusetts has had a consistent, uniform, progressive policy, which is due in part to the consideration alreadynamed, and in part, no doubt, to a popular opinion, traditional andhistorical in its origin, but sustained and strengthened by the measuresand experience of the last quarter of a century, that a system of publicinstruction is so important an element of general prosperity as tojustify all needful appropriations for its support. 

It may, then, be claimed for the Massachusetts School Fund, that theexpectations of those by whom it was established have been realized;that it has given unity and efficiency to the school system; that it hassecured accurate and complete returns from all the towns; that it has, consequently, promoted a good understanding between the Legislature andthe people; that it has increased local taxation, but has never been asubstitute for it; and that it has enabled the Legislature, at all timesand in every condition of the general finances, to act with freedom inregard to those agencies which are deemed essential to the prosperity ofthe common schools of the state. 

Having thus, in the history of the school fund, fully justified itsestablishment, so in its history we find sufficient reasons for itssacred preservation. While other communities, and even other states, have treated educational funds as ordinary revenue, subject only to anobligation on the part of the public to bestow an annual income on thespecified object, Massachusetts has ever acted in a fiduciary relation, and considered herself responsible for the principal as well as theincome of the fund, not only to this generation, but to every generationthat shall occupy the soil, and inherit the name and fame of thiscommonwealth. 

It only remains for me to present the reasons which render an increaseof the capital of the fund desirable, if not necessary. The annualincome of the existing fund amounts to about ninety-three thousanddollars, one-half of which is distributed among the towns and cities, inproportion to the number of persons in each between the ages of five andfifteen years. The distribution for the year 1857-8 amounted to twentycents and eight mills for each child. The following table shows theannual distribution to the towns from the year 1836; the whole numberof children for each year except 1836 and 1840, when the entirepopulation was the basis; and the amount paid on account of each childsince the year 1849, when the law establishing the present method ofdistribution was enacted:

=================================================== | | | Income | | | perYear. | Children. | Income. | pupil. ---------+--------------+---------------+----------1836. | 473, 684 |$16, 230 57[5] | --1837. | 160, 676 | 19, 002 74[6] | --1838. | 174, 984 | 19, 970 47 | --1839. | 180, 070 | 21, 358 81 | --1840. | 701, 331 | 21, 202 64[7] | --1841. | 179, 967 | 32, 109 32[8] | --1842. | 179, 917 | 24, 006 89 | --1843. | 173, 416 | 24, 094 87 | --1844. | 158, 193 | 22, 932 71 | --1845. | 170, 823 | 28, 248 35 | --1846. | 195, 032 | 30, 150 27 | --1847. | 197, 475 | 34, 511 89 | --===================================================

=================================================== | | | Per Pupil | | | in CentsYear. | Children. | Income. | & Mills. ---------+--------------+---------------+----------1848. | 210, 403 |$33, 874 87 | --1849. | 210, 770 | 33, 723 20 | --1850. | 182, 003 | 37, 370 51[9] | . 2051851. | 192, 849 | 41, 462 54 | . 2151852. | 198, 050 | 44, 066 12 | . 2221853. | 199, 292 | 46, 908 10 | . 2351854. | 202, 102 | 48, 504 48 | . 2401855. | 210, 761 | 46, 788 94 | . 2221856. | 221, 902 | 44, 842 75 | . 2021857. | 220, 336 | 46, 783 64 | . 2121858. | 222, 860 | 46, 496 19 | . 208===================================================

It was contemplated by the founders of the school fund that an amountmight safely be distributed among the towns equal to one-third of thesums raised by taxation, but the state is really furnishing onlyone-thirtieth of the annual expenditure. A distribution corresponding tothe original expectation is neither desirable nor possible; but asubstantial addition might be made without in any degree diminishing theinterest of the people, or relieving them from taxation. The income ofthe school fund has been three times used as a means of increasing theappropriations in the towns. It is doubtful whether, without an additionto the fund, this power can be again applied; and yet there are, according to the last returns, twenty-two towns that do not raise a sumfor schools equal to $2. 50 for each child between the ages of five andfifteen years; and there are fifty-two towns whose appropriations areless than three dollars. When the average annual expenditure is over sixdollars, the minimum ought not to be less than three. 

It is to be considered that, as population increases, the annualpersonal distribution will diminish, and consequently that the bond nowexisting between the Legislature and people will be weakened. Moreover, any definite sum of money is worth less than it was twenty years ago;and it is reasonably certain that the same sum will be less valuable in1860, and yet less valuable in 1870, than it is now. Hence, if the fundremain nominally the same, it yet suffers a practical annual decrease. It is further to be presumed that the Legislature will find it expedientto advance in its legislation from year to year. A small number oftowns, few or many, may not always approve of what is done, and it isquite important that the influence of the fund should be sufficient toenable the state to execute its policy with uniformity and precision. 

As is well known, the expenses of the educational department aredefrayed from the other half of the income of the fund. From this incomethe forty-eight scholarships in the colleges, the Normal Schools, theTeachers' Institutes, the Agents of the Board of Education, aresupported, and the salaries of the Secretary and the Assistant-Secretaryare paid. As has been stated, the surplus carried to the capital of thefund in June last was only $1, 843. 68. The objects of expenditure, already named, may be abolished, but no reasonable plan of economy caneffect much saving while they exist. It is also reasonably certain thatthe expenses of the department must be increased. The law now providesfor twelve Teachers' Institutes, annually, and there were opportunitiesduring the present year for holding them; but, in order that one agentmight be constantly employed, and a second employed for the term of sixmonths, I limited the number of sessions to ten. 

The salaries of the teachers in the Normal Schools are low, and thenumber of persons employed barely adequate to the work to be done. Somechange, involving additional expense, is likely to be called for in thecourse of a few years. 

In view of the eminent aid which the school fund has rendered to thecause of education, with due deference to the wisdom and opinions of itsfounders, and with just regard to the existing and probable necessitiesof the state in connection with the cause of education, I earnestlyfavor the increase of the school fund by the addition of a million and ahalf of dollars. 

Nor does the proposition for the state to appropriate annually $180, 000in aid of the common schools seem unreasonable, when it is consideredthat the military expenses are $65, 000, the reformatory and correctionalabout $200, 000, the charitable about $45, 000, and the pauper expensesnearly $250, 000 more, all of which will diminish as our schools are yearby year better qualified to give thorough and careful intellectual, moral, and religious culture. 

This increase seems to be necessary in order that the MassachusettsSchool Fund may furnish aid to the common schools during the nextquarter of a century proportionate to the relative influence exerted bythe same agency during the last twenty-five years. Nor will such anaddition give occasion for any apprehension that the zeal of the peoplewill be diminished in the least. Were there to be no increase ofpopulation in the state, the distribution for each pupil would neverexceed forty cents, or about one-fifteenth of the amount now raised bytaxation. 

So convinced are the people of Massachusetts of the importance of commonschools, and so much are they accustomed to taxation for their support, that there is no occasion to hesitate, lest we should follow the exampleof those communities where large funds, operating upon an uneducated andinexperienced popular opinion, have injured rather than benefited thepublic schools. The ancient policy of the commonwealth will becontinued; but, whenever the people see the government, by solemn act, manifesting its confidence in schools and learning, they will beencouraged to guard and sustain the institutions of the fathers. 

FOOTNOTES:

[4] An eminent friend of education, and an Englishman, speaking of thereports for the year 1866-7, says: "The views enunciated by your localcommittees, while they have the sobriety indicative of practicalknowledge, are at the same time enlightened and expansive. The writersof such reports must be of inestimable aid to your schoolmasters, standing as they do between the teacher and the parent, and exercisingthe most wholesome influence on both. Let me remark, in passing, that Iam struck with the power of composition evinced in these provincialpapers. Clear exposition, great command of the best English, correctnessand even elegance of style, are their characteristics. "

[5] Distributed among the cities and towns, according to an Act of 1835. (Stat. 138, § 2. )

[6] Distributed among the cities and towns, according to the number ofpersons in each between the ages of four and sixteen years. (Rev. Stat. , chap. 23, § 67. )

[7] Income distributed among the cities and towns, according topopulation, under an Act passed Feb. 22, 1840. (Stat. 1840, Chap. 7. )This act was repealed by an act passed Feb. 8, 1841. (Stat. 1841, chap. 17, § 2. )

[8] Distributed among the cities and towns, according to the number ofpersons in each between the ages of four and sixteen years. (Stat. 1841, chap. 17, § 2. )

[9] Distributed among the cities and towns, according to the number ofpersons in each between the ages of five and fifteen years. (Stat. 1849, chap. 117, § 2. )

A SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

[An Address before the Barnstable Agricultural Society, Oct. 8, 1857. ]

In the month of February, 1855, a distinguished American, who has readmuch, and acquired, by conversation, observation, and travels in thiscountry and Europe, the highest culture of American society, wrote thesenoticeable sentences: "The farmers have not kept pace, in intelligence, with the rest of the community. They do not put brain-manure enough intotheir acres. Our style of farming is slovenly, dawdling, and stupid, andthe waste, especially in manure, is immense. I suppose we are about, infarming, where the Lowlands of Scotland were fifty years ago; and whatimmense strides agriculture has made in Great Britain since the battleof Waterloo, and how impossible it would have been for the farmers tohave held their own without!"[10]

It would not be civil for me to endorse these statements as introductoryto a brief address upon Agricultural Education; but I should not acceptthem at all did they not contain truth enough to furnish a text for alayman's discourse before an assembly of farmers. 

Competent American travellers concur in the opinion that the Europeansgenerally, and especially our brethren of England, Ireland, andScotland, are far in advance of us in scientific and practicalagriculture. This has been stated or admitted by Mr. Colman, PresidentHitchcock, and last by Mr. French, who has recently visited Europe underthe auspices of the National Agricultural Society. 

There are good reasons for the past and for the existing superiority ofthe Old World; and there are good reasons, also, why this superiorityshould not much longer continue. Europe is old, --America is young. Landhas been cultivated for centuries in Europe, and often by the samefamily; its capacity tested, its fitness or unfitness for particularcrops proved, the local and special effects of different fertilizerswell known, and the experience of many generations has been preserved, so as to be equivalent to a like experience, in time and extent, by thepresent occupants of the soil. 

In America there are no family estates, nor long occupation by the samefamily of the same spot. Cultivated lands have changed hands as often asevery twenty-five years from the settlement of the country. Thecapacity of our soils to produce, when laboriously and systematicallycultivated, has not been ascertained; there has been no accumulation ofexperience by families, and but little by the public; and the effort, inmany sections, has been to draw as much as possible from the land, whilelittle or nothing was returned to it. Farming, as a whole, has not beena system of cultivation, which implies improvement, but a process ofexhaustion. It has been easier for the farmer, though, perhaps, not aseconomical, if all the elements necessary to a correct opinion could becombined, to exchange his worn-out lands for fresh soils, than to adoptan improving system of agriculture. The present has been consulted; thefuture has been disregarded. As the half-civilized hunters of the pampasof Buenos Ayres make indiscriminate slaughter of the myriads of wildcattle that roam over the unfenced prairies of the south, and preservethe hides only for the commerce and comfort of the world, so we haveclutched from nature whatever was in sight or next at hand, regardlessof the actual and ultimate wrong to physical and vegetable life; and, asthe pioneers of a better civilization now gather up the bones longneglected and bleaching under tropical suns and tropical rains, and bythe agency of trade, art, and industry, extort more wealth from themthan was originally derived from the living animals, so we shall findthat worn-out lands, when subjected to skilful, careful, scientifichusbandry, are quite as profitable as the virgin soils, which, from theday of the migration into the Connecticut valley to the occupancy of theMissouri and the Kansas, have proved so tempting to our ancestors and tous. But there has been some philosophy, some justice, and considerablenecessity, in the course that has been pursued. Subsistence is the firstdesire; and, in new countries where forests are to be felled, dwellingserected, public institutions established, roads and bridges built, settlers cannot be expected, in the cultivation of the land, to lookmuch beyond the present moment. And they are entitled to the originalfertility of the soil. Europe passed through the process of settlementand exhaustion many centuries ago. Her recovery has been the work ofcenturies, --ours may be accomplished in a few years, even within thelimits of a single life. The fact from which an improving system ofagriculture must proceed is apparent in the northern and centralAtlantic states, and is, in a measure, appreciated in the West. We haveall heard that certain soils were inexhaustible. The statement was firstmade of the valley of the Connecticut, then of the Genesee country, thenof Ohio, then of Illinois, and occasionally we now hear similarstatements of Kansas, or California, or the valley of the Willamette. Inthe nature of things these statements were erroneous. The idea of soil, in reason and in the use of the word, contains the idea of exhaustion. Soil is not merely the upper stratum of the earth; it is a substancewhich possesses the power, under certain circumstances, of giving upessential properties of its own for the support of vegetable andultimately of animal life. What it gives up it loses, and to the extentof its loss it is exhausted. It is no more untrue to say that the greatcities of the world have not, in their building, exhausted the forestsand the mines to any extent, than to say that the annual abundantharvests of corn and wheat have not, in any degree, exhausted theprairies and bottom lands of the West. Some lands may be exhausted forparticular crops in a single year; others in five years, others in ten, while others may yield undiminished returns for twenty, fifty, or even ahundred years. But it is plain that annual cropping without rotation, and without compensation by nature or art, must finally deprive the soilof the required elements. Nor should we deceive ourselves by consideringonly those exceptions whose existence is due to the fact that naturemakes compensation for the loss. Annual or occasional irrigation withrich deposits, --as upon the Nile and the Connecticut, --allowing theland to lie fallow, rotation of crops and the growth of wood, are somany expedients and provisions by which nature increases theproductiveness of the earth. Nor is a great depth of soil, as two, five, ten, or twenty feet, any security against its ultimate impoverishment. Only a certain portion is available. It has been found in the case ofcoal-mines which lie at great depths, that they are, for the present, valueless; and we cannot attach much importance to soil that is twentyfeet below the surface. Neither cultivation nor vegetation can go beyonda certain depth; and wherever vegetable life exists, its elements arerequired and appropriated. Great depth of soil is desirable; but, withour present knowledge and means of culture, it furnishes no securityagainst ultimate exhaustion. 

The fact that all soils are exhaustible establishes the necessity foragricultural education, by whose aid the processes of impoverishment maybe limited in number and diminished in force; and the realization ofthis fact by the public generally is the only justification necessaryfor those who advocate the immediate application of means to theproposed end. 

And, gentlemen, if you will allow a festive day to be marred by a singleword of criticism, I feel constrained to say, that a great obstacle tothe increased usefulness, further elevation, and higher respectability, of agriculture, is in the body of farmers themselves. And I assume thisto be so upon the supposition that agriculture is not a cherishedpursuit in many farmers' homes; that the head of the family oftenregards his life of labor upon the land as a necessity from which hewould willingly escape; that he esteems other pursuits as at once lesslaborious, more profitable, and more honorable, than his own; thatchildren, both sons and daughters, under the influence of parents, bothfather and mother, receive an education at home, which neither school, college, nor newspaper, can counteract, that leads them to abandon theland for the store, the shop, the warehouse, the professions, or thesea. 

The reasonable hope of establishing a successful system of agriculturaleducation is not great where such notions prevail. 

Agriculture is not to attain to true practical dignity by the borrowedlustre that eminent names, ancient and modern, may have lent to it, anymore than the earth itself is warmed and made fruitful by the auroraborealis of an autumn night. Our system of public instruction, from theprimary school to the college, rests mainly upon the public belief inits importance, its possibility, and its necessity. It is easy on aprofessional holiday to believe in the respectability of agriculture;but is it a living sentiment, controlling your conduct, and inspiringyou with courage and faith in your daily labor? Does it lead you tocontemplate with satisfaction the prospect that your son is to be afarmer also, and that your daughter is to be a farmer's wife? These, Iimagine, are test questions which not all farmers nor farmers' wives cananswer in the affirmative. Else, why the custom among farmers' sons ofmaking their escape, at the earliest moment possible, from the laborsand restraints of the farm? Else, why the disposition of the farmer'sdaughter to accept other situations, not more honorable, and in the endnot usually more profitable, than the place of household aid to thebusiness of the home? How, then, can a system of education be prosperousand efficient, when those for whom it is designed neither respect theircalling nor desire to pursue it? You will not, of course, imagine that Irefer, in these statements, to all farmers; there are many exceptions;but my own experience and observation lead me to place confidence in thefitness of these remarks, speaking generally of the farmers of NewEngland. It is, however, true, and the statement of the truth ought notto be omitted, that the prevalent ideas among us are much in advance ofwhat they were ten years ago. In what has been accomplished we haveground for hope, and even security for further advancement. 

I look, then, first and chiefly to an improved home culture, as thenecessary basis of a system of agricultural education. Christianeducation, culture, and life, depend essentially upon the influences ofhome; and we feel continually the importance of kindred influences uponour common school system. 

It will not, of course, be wise to wait, in the establishment of asystem of agricultural education, until we are satisfied that everyfarmer is prepared for it; in the beginning sufficient support may bederived from a small number of persons, but in the end it must besustained by the mass of those interested. Other pursuits andprofessions must meet the special claims made upon them, and in thematter of agricultural education they cannot be expected to do more thanassent to what the farmers themselves may require. 

An important part of a system of agricultural education has been, as itseems to me, already established. I speak of our national, state, county, and town associations for the promotion of agriculture. Thefirst three may educate the people through their annual fairs, by theirpublications, and by the collection and distribution of rare seeds, plants, and animals, that are not usually within reach of individualfarmers. By such means, and others less noticeable, these agencies canexert a powerful influence upon the farmers of the country; but theirthorough, systematic education must be carried on at home. And for localand domestic education I think we must rely upon our public schools, upon town clubs or associations of farmers, and upon scientific men whomay be appointed by the government to visit the towns, confer with thepeople, and receive and communicate information upon the agriculturalresources and defects of the various localities. It will be observedthat in this outline of a plan of education I omit the agriculturalcollege. This omission is intentional, and I will state my reasons forit. I speak, however, of the present; the time may come when such aninstitution will be needed. In Massachusetts, Mr. Benjamin Bussey hasmade provision for a college at Roxbury, and Mr. Oliver Smith has madesimilar provision for a college at Northampton; but these bequests willnot be available for many years. In England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium, Prussia, Russia, Austria, and the smaller states of Europe, agricultural schools and colleges have been established; and they appearto be the most numerous where the ignorance of the people is thegreatest. England has five colleges and schools, Ireland sixty-three, while Scotland has only a professorship in each of her colleges atAberdeen and Edinburgh. In France, there are seventy-five agriculturalschools; but in seventy of them--called inferior schools--theinstruction is a compound of that given in our public schools and thediscipline of a good farmer upon his land, with some special attentionto agricultural reading and farm accounts. Such schools are not desiredand would not be patronized among us. When an agricultural school isestablished, it must be of a higher grade, --it must take rank with thecolleges of the country. President Hitchcock, in his report, publishedin 1851, states that six professors would be required; that the firstoutlay would be sixty-seven thousand dollars, and that the annualexpense would be six thousand and two hundred dollars. By thesearrangements and expenditures he contemplates the education of onehundred students, who are to pay annually each for tuition the sum offorty dollars. It was also proposed to connect an agriculturaldepartment with several of the existing academies, at an annual expenseof three thousand dollars more. These estimates of cost seem low, nor doI find in this particular any special objection to the recommendationmade by the commissioners of the government; any other scheme is likelyto be quite as expensive in the end. 

My chief objection is, that such a plan is not comprehensive enough, andcannot, in a reasonable time, sensibly affect the average standard ofagricultural learning among us. The graduation of fifty students a yearwould be equal to one in a thousand or fifteen hundred of the farmers ofthe state; and in ten years there would not be one professionallyeducated farmer in a hundred. We are not, of course, to overlook theindirect influence of such a school, through its students annually sentforth: the better modes of culture adopted by them would, to someextent, be copied by others; nor are we to overlook the probability of aprejudice against the institution and its graduates, growing out of therepublican ideas of equality prevailing among us. But the struggleagainst mere prejudice would be an honorable struggle, if, in the hourof victory, the college could claim to have reformed and elevatedmaterially the practices and ideas of the farmers of the country. I fearthat even victory under such circumstances would not be completesuccess. An institution established in New England must look to theexisting peculiarities of our country, rather than venture at once uponthe adoption of schemes that may have been successful elsewhere. Hereevery farmer is a laborer himself, employing usually from one to threehands, and they are often persons who look to the purchase andcultivation of a farm on their own account; while in England the masterfarmer is an overseer rather than a laborer. The number of men in Europewho own land or work it on their own account is small; the number oflaborers whose labors are directed by the proprietors and farmers isquite large. Under these circumstances, if the few are educated, thework will go successfully on; while here, our agricultural educationought to reach the great body of those who labor upon the land. Will acollege in each state answer the demand for agricultural education nowexisting? Is it safe in any country, or in any profession or pursuit, toeducate a few, and leave the majority to the indirect influence of theculture thus bestowed? And is it philosophical, in this country, wherethere is a degree of personal and professional freedom such as isnowhere else enjoyed, to found a college or higher institution oflearning upon the general and admitted ignorance of the people in thegiven department? or is it wiser, by elementary training and theuniversal diffusion of better ideas, to make the establishment of thecollege the necessity of the culture previously given? Every new school, not a college, makes the demand for the college course greater than itwas before; and the advance made in our public schools increases thestudents in the colleges and the university. We build from the primaryschool to the college; and without the primary school and itsdependents, --the grammar, high school, and academy, --the colleges wouldcease to exist. This view of education supports the statement that anagricultural college is not the foundation of a system of agriculturaltraining, but a result that is to be reached through a preliminary andelementary course of instruction. What shall that course be? I say, first, the establishment of town or neighborhood societies of farmersand others interested in agriculture. These societies ought to beauxiliary to the county societies, and they never can become theirrivals or enemies unless they are grossly perverted in their managementand purposes. As such societies must be mutual and voluntary in theircharacter, they can be established in any town where there are twenty, ten, or even five persons who are disposed to unite together. Its objectwould, of course, be the advancement of practical agriculture; and itwould look to theories and even to science as means only for theattainment of a specified end. The exercises of such societies wouldvary according to the tastes and plans of the members and directors; butthey would naturally provide for discussions and conversations amongthemselves, lectures from competent persons, the establishment of alibrary, and for the collection of models and drawings of domesticanimals, models of varieties of fruit, specimens of seeds, grasses, andgrains, rocks, minerals, and soils. The discussions and conversationswould be based upon the actual observation and experience of themembers; and agriculture would at once become better understood and morecarefully practised by each person who intended to contribute to theexercises of the meeting. 

Until the establishment of agricultural journals, there were no means bywhich the results of individual experience could be made known to themass of farmers; and, even now, men of the largest experience are notthe chief contributors. 

Wherever a local club exists, it is always possible to compare theknowledge of the different members; and the results of such comparisonmay, when deemed desirable, be laid before the public at large. It isalso in the power of such an organization thoroughly and at once to testany given experiment. The attention of this section of the country hasbeen directed to the culture of the Chinese sugar-cane; and merchants, economists, and statesmen, as well as the farmers themselves, areinterested in the speedy and satisfactory solution of so important anindustrial problem. Had the attention of a few local societies indifferent parts of New England been directed to the culture, withspecial reference to its feasibility and profitableness, a definiteresult might have been reached the present year. The growth of flax, both in the means of cultivation and in economy, is a subject of greatimportance. Many other crops might also be named, concerning whichopposite, not to say vague, opinions prevail. The local societies maymake these trials through the agency of individual members better thanthey can be made by county and state societies, and better than they canusually be made upon model or experimental farms. It will often happenupon experimental farms that the circumstances do not correspond to thecondition of things among the farmers. The combined practical wisdom ofsuch associations must be very great; and I have but to refer to thepublished minutes of the proceedings of the Concord Club to justify thisstatement in its broadest sense. The meetings of such a club have allthe characteristics of a school of the highest order. Each member is atthe same time a teacher and a pupil. The meeting is to the farmer whatthe court-room is to the lawyer, the hospital to the physician, and thelegislative assembly to the statesman. 

Moot courts alone will not make skilful lawyers; the manikin is but anindifferent teacher of anatomy; and we may safely say that no statesmanwas ever made so by books, schools, and street discussions, withoutactual experience in some department of government. 

It is, of course, to be expected that an agricultural college would havethe means of making experiments; but each experiment could be made onlyunder a single set of circumstances, while the agency of localsocieties, in connection with other parts of the plan that I have thehonor diffidently to present, would convert at once a county or a stateinto an experimental farm for a given time and a given purpose. Thelocal club being always practical and never theoretical, dealing withthings always and never with signs, presenting only facts and neverconjectures, would, as a school for the young farmer, be quite equal, and in some respects superior, to any that the government can establish. But, it may be asked, will you call that a school which is merely anassembly of adults without a teacher? I answer that technically it isnot a school, but that in reality such an association is a school in thebest use of the word. A school is, first, for the development of powersand qualities whose germs already exist; then for the acquisition ofknowledge previously possessed by others; then for the prosecution oforiginal inquiries and investigations. The associations of which I speakwould possess all these powers, and contemplate all these results; butthat their powers might be more efficient, and for the advancement ofagriculture generally, it seems to me fit and proper for the state toappoint scientific and practical men as agents of the Board ofAgriculture, and lecturers upon agricultural science and labor. If anagricultural college were founded, a farm would be required, and atleast six professors would be necessary. Instead of a single farm, witha hundred young men upon it, accept gratuitously, as you would no doubthave opportunity, the use of many farms for experiments and repeatedtrials of crops, and, at the same time, educate, not a hundred only, butmany thousand young men, nearly as well in theory and science, and muchbetter in practical labor, than they could be educated in a college. Sixprofessors, as agents, could accomplish a large amount of necessarywork; possibly, for the present, all that would be desired. Assume, forthis inquiry, that Massachusetts contains three hundred agriculturaltowns; divide these towns into sections of fifty each; then assign onesection to each agent, with the understanding that his work for theyear is to be performed in that section, and then that he is to betransferred to another. By a rotation of appointments and a successionof labors, the varied attainments of the lecturers would be enjoyed bythe whole commonwealth. But, it may be asked, what, specifically stated, shall the work of the agents be? Only suggestions can be offered inanswer to this inquiry. An agent might, in the summer season, visit hisfifty towns, and spend two days in each. While there, he could ascertainthe kinds of crops, modes of culture, nature of soils, practicalexcellences, and practical defects, of the farmers; and he might alsoprovide for such experiments as he desired to have made. It would, likewise, be in his power to give valuable advice, where it might beneeded, in regard to farming proper, and also to the erection and repairof farm-buildings. I am satisfied that a competent agent would, in thislast particular alone, save to the people a sum equal to the entire costof his services. After this labor was accomplished, eight months wouldremain for the preparation and delivery of lectures in the fifty townspreviously visited. These lectures might be delivered in each town, orthe agent might hold meetings of the nature of institutes in a number oftowns centrally situated. In either case, the lectures would be at oncescientific and practical; and their practical character would beappreciated in the fact that a judicious agent would adapt his lecturesto the existing state of things in the given locality. This could not bedone by a college, however favorably situated, and however wellaccomplished in the material of education. It is probable that thelectures would be less scientific than those that would be given in acollege; but when their superior practical character is considered, andwhen we consider also that they would be listened to by the great bodyof farmers, old and young, while those of the college could be enjoyedby a small number of youth only, we cannot doubt which would be the mostbeneficial to the state, and to the cause of agriculture in the country. 

An objection to the plan I have indicated may be found in the beliefthat the average education of the farmers is not equal to a fullappreciation of the topics and lectures to be presented. My answer is, that the lecturers must meet the popular intelligence, whatever it is. Nothing is to be assumed by the teacher; it is his first duty toascertain the qualifications of his pupils. I am, however, led to theopinion that the schools of the country have already laid a very goodbasis for practical instruction in agriculture; and, if this be not so, then an additional argument will be offered for the most rapid advancepossible in our systems of education. In any event, it is true that thepublic schools furnish a large part of the intellectual culture given inthe inferior and intermediate agricultural schools of Europe. 

The great defect in the plan I have presented is this: That no means areprovided for the thorough education needed by those persons who are tobe appointed agents, and no provision is made for testing the qualitiesof soils, and the elements of grains, grasses, and fruits. My answer tothis suggestion is, that it is in part, at least, well founded; but thatthe scientific schools furnish a course of study in the natural scienceswhich must be satisfactory to the best educated farmer or professor ofagricultural learning, and that analyses may be made in the laboratoriesof existing institutions. 

It is my fortune to be able to read a letter from Professor Horsford, which furnishes a satisfactory view of the ability of the ScientificSchool at Cambridge. 

 "_Cambridge, Sept. 19, 1857. _

"MY DEAR SIR: The occupation incident to the opening of the term hasprevented an earlier answer to your letter of inquiry in regard to theScientific School. 

"The Scientific School furnishes, I believe, the necessary scientificknowledge for students of agriculture (such as you mention), 'who havebeen well educated at our high schools, academies, or colleges, and havealso been trained practically in the business of farming. ' It provides:

"1st. Practical instruction in the modes of experimental investigation. This is, I know, an unrecognized department, but it is, perhaps, thebetter suited name to the course of instruction of our chemicaldepartment. It qualifies the student for the most direct methods ofsolving the practical problems which are constantly arising in practicalagriculture. It includes the analysis of soils, the manufacture andtesting of manures, the philosophy of improved methods of culture, ofrotation of crops, of dairy production, of preserving fruits, meats, &c. It applies more or less directly to the whole subject of mechanicalexpedients. 

"2d. Practical instruction in surveying, mensuration, and drawing. 

"3d. And by lectures--in botany, geology, zoology, comparative anatomy, and natural philosophy. 

"Some of them--indeed, all of them, if desired--might be pursuedpractically, and with the use of apparatus and specimens. 

"This course contemplates a period of study of from one year to two anda half years, according to the qualification of the pupil at the outset. He appears an hour each day at the blackboard, where he shares the drillof a class, and where he acquires a facility of illustration, command oflanguage, an address and thorough consciousness of real knowledge, whichare of more value, in many cases, as you know, than almost any amount ofsimple acquisition. He also attends, on an average, about one lecture aday throughout the year. During the remaining time he is occupied withexperimental work in the laboratory or field. 

"The great difficulty with students of agriculture, who might care tocome to the Scientific School, is the expense of living in Cambridge. Ifsome farmer at a distance of three or four miles from college, whererents for rooms are low, would open a boarding-house for students ofagriculture in the Scientific School, where the care of a kitchen gardenand some stock might be intrusted to them, and where a farmer's plaintable might be spread at the price at which laborers would be received, we might hope that our facilities would be taken advantage of on alarger scale. As it is, but few, comparatively, among our students, cometo qualify themselves for farming. "

I should, however, consider the arrangements proposed as temporary, andfinally to be abandoned or made permanent, as experience should dictate. 

It may be said, I think, without disparagement to the many distinguishedand disinterested men who have labored for the advancement ofagriculture, that the operations of the government and of the state andcounty societies have no plan or system by which, as a whole, they areguided. The county societies have been and are the chief means ofinfluence and progress; but they have no power which can besystematically applied; their movements are variable, and their annualexhibitions do not always indicate the condition of agriculture in thedistricts represented. They have become, to a certain extent, localizedin the vicinity of the towns where the fairs are held; and yet they donot possess the vigor which institutions positively local would enjoy. 

The town clubs hold annual fairs; and these fairs should be madetributary, in their products and in the interest they excite, to thecounty fairs. Let the town fairs be held as early in the season aspracticable, and then let each town send to the county fairs itsfirst-class premium articles as the contributions of the local society, as well as of the individual producers. Thus a healthful and generousrivalry would be stirred up between the towns of a county as well asamong the citizens of each town; and a county exhibition upon the plansuggested would represent at one view the general condition ofagriculture in the vicinity. No one can pretend that this isaccomplished by the present arrangements. Moreover, the county society, in its management and in its annual exhibitions, would possess animportance which it had not before enjoyed. As each town would berepresented by the products of the dairy, the herd, and the field, so itwould be represented by its men; and the annual fair of the county wouldbe a truthful and complete exposition of its industrial standing andpower. 

Out of a system thus broad, popular, and strong, an agricultural collegewill certainly spring, if such an institution shall be needed. But is itlikely that in a country where the land is divided, and the number offarmers is great, the majority will ever be educated in colleges, andupon strict scientific principles? I am ready to answer that such anexpectation seems to me a mere delusion. The great body of young farmersmust be educated by the example and practices of their elders, by theirown efforts at individual and mutual improvement, and by the influenceof agricultural journals, books, lecturers, and the example ofthoroughly educated men. And, as thoroughly educated men, lecturers, journals, and books of a proper character, cannot be furnished withoutthe aid of scientific schools and thorough culture, the farmers, as abody, are interested in the establishment of all institutions oflearning which promise to advance any number of men, however small, inthe mysteries of the profession; but, when we design a system ofeducation for a class, common wisdom requires us to contemplate itsinfluence upon each individual. The influence of a single college in anystate, or in each state of this Union, would be exceedingly limited; butlocal societies and travelling lecturers could make an appreciableimpression in a year upon the agricultural population of any state, andin New England the interest in the subject is such that there is nodifficulty in founding town clubs, and making them at once the agents ofthe government and the schools for the people. 

In the plan indicated, I have, throughout, assumed the disposition ofthe farmers to educate themselves. This assumption implies a certaindegree of education already attained; for a consciousness of thenecessity of education is only developed by culture, learning, andreflection. Such being the admitted fact, it remains that the farmersthemselves ought at once to institute such means of self-improvement asare at their command. They are, in nearly every state of this Union, amajority of the voters, and the controlling force of society and thegovernment; but I do not from these facts infer the propriety of areliance on their part upon the powers which they may thus direct. However wisely said, when first said, it is not wise to "look to thegovernment for too much;" and there can be no reasonable doubt of theability of the farmers to institute and perfect such measures ofself-education as are at present needed. But the spirit in which theyenter upon this work must be broad, comprehensive, catholic. They willfind something, I hope, of example, something of motive, something ofpower, in their experience as friends and supporters of our system ofcommon school education; and something of all these, I trust, in thefacts that this system is kept in motion by the self-imposed taxation ofthe whole people; that all individuals and classes of men, forgettingtheir differences of opinion in politics and religion, rally to itssupport, as being in itself a safe basis on which may be built whateverstructures men of wisdom and virtue and piety may desire to erect, whether they labor first and chiefly for the world that is, or for thatwhich is to come. 

FOOTNOTE:

[10] Hon. George S. Hillard. 

ADVERTISEMENTS

JUVENILE BOOKS. 

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND MOST ENTERTAINING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN EVERPUBLISHED. 

MR. CRANCH'S ILLUSTRATED STORIES. 

THE LAST OF THE HUGGERMUGGERS: a Giant Story. By CHRISTOPHER PEARSECRANCH, With illustrations on wood, from drawings by the author. Printedon fine, hot-pressed paper, from large, fair type. Price $1. 00. 

This book has been received with the utmost delight by all the children. Mr. Cranch is at once painter and poet, and his story and illustrationsare both characteristic of a man of genius. 

KOBBOLTOZO; being a Sequel to "The Last of the Huggermuggers. " ByCHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH. With illustrations by the author. 

The hand of the author in the tale, and especially in the drawings, isfreer than in his former work. The pictures are exquisite, and much morenumerous than in the "Huggermuggers. " Both these books will please thelarger or grown-up children, as well as those still in the nursery. 

Uniform in style with its predecessor. Price $1. 00. 

COUSIN FANNIE'S JUVENILE BOOKS. 

EVERY BEGINNING IS EASY FOR CHILDREN WHO LOVE STUDY. Translated from theGerman, by COUSIN FANNIE. Largo quarto, with elegantly coloredlithographic plates. Price $1. 00. 

Altogether one of the most attractive books, both in matter and style, ever issued in this country. 

AUNTY WONDERFUL'S STORIES. Translated from the German, by COUSIN FANNIE. With spirited lithographic illustrations. It has proved immenselypopular among the little folks. Price 75 cents. 

RED BEARD'S STORIES FOR CHILDREN. Translated from the German, by COUSINFANNIE. 

The illustrations for this book are of a most novel and takingcharacter. They are in imitation of the _silhouettes_ or pictures cutout by scissors, in which our ancestors' portraits have often beenpreserved. The pictures are numerous, spirited and effective. Thestories are worthy of their elegant dress. Price 75 cents. 

BRIGHT PICTURES OF CHILD-LIFE. Translated from the German, by COUSINFANNIE. Illustrated by numerous highly-finished colored engravings. Price 75 cents. 

VIOLET; A Fairy Story. Illustrated by Billings. Price 50 cents; gilt, 75cents. 

The publishers desire to call attention to this exquisite little story. It breathes such a love of Nature in all her forms; inculcates suchexcellent principles, and is so full of beauty and simplicity, that itwill delight not only children, but all readers of unsophisticatedtastes. The author seems to teach the gentle creed which Coleridge hasembodied in those familiar lines--

 "He prayeth well who loveth well Both man, and bird, and beast. "

DAISY; or the Fairy Spectacles. By the author of "VIOLET. " Illustrated. Price 50 cents; gilt, 75 cents. 

THE GREAT ROSY DIAMOND. By MRS. ANNE AUGUSTA CARTER With illustrationsby Billings. Price 50 cents; gilt 75 cents. 

This is a most charming story, from an author of reputation in thisdepartment, both in England and America. The machinery of Fairy Land isemployed with great ingenuity; the style is beautiful, imaginative, yetsimple. The frolics of Robin Goodfellow are rendered with the utmostgrace and spirit. 

TALES FROM SHAKSPEARE. Designed for the Use of Young Persons. By CHARLESLAMB. From the fifth London edition. 12mo. Illustrated. Price, bound inmuslin, $1. 00; gilt, $1. 50. 

These tales are intended to interest children and youth in some of theplays of Shakspeare. The form of the dialogue is dropped, and insteadthe plots are woven into stories, which are models of beauty. WhatHawthorne has lately done for the classical mythology, Lamb has heredone for Shakspeare. 

PUBLISHED BYPHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO. , Boston, And for sale by all Booksellers in the United States. 

JUVENILE BOOKS. 

THE ROLLO BOOKS. By REV. JACOB ABBOTT. In fourteen volumes. New edition, with finely executed engravings from original designs by Billings. Price$7; single, 50 cents, Any volume sold separately. 

 Rollo Learning to Talk. Rollo Learning to Read. Rollo at Work. Rollo at Play. Rollo at School. Rollo's Vacation. Rollo's Experiments. Rollo's Museum. Rollo's Travels. Rollo's Correspondence. Rollo's Philosophy--Water. Rollo's Philosophy--Fire. Rollo's Philosophy--Air. Rollo's Philosophy--Sky. 

This is undoubtedly the most popular series of juvenile books everpublished in America. This edition is far more attractive externallythan the one by which the author first became known. Nearly one hundrednew engravings, clear and fine paper, a new and beautiful cover, with aneat box to contain the whole, will give to this series, if possible, astill wider and more enduring reputation. 

The same, without illustrations, fourteen volumes, muslin, $5. 25. 

EXCELSIOR GIFT BOOKS. 

Six volumes, large 16mo. , illustrated. Price, in cloth, 75 cents pervolume; gilt, $1. 00. 

 Christmas Roses. Favorite Story Book. Little Messenger Birds. The Ice King. Youth's Diadem. Juvenile Keepsake. 

A beautiful series of books, and universally popular. 

VACATION STORY BOOKS. 

Six volumes, with fine wood engravings. Price, in cloth, 50 cents pervolume; gilt, 75 cents. 

 Estelle's Stories about Dogs. The Cheerful Heart. Little Blossom's Reward. Holidays at Chestnut Hill. Country Life. The Angel Children. 

A series of stories that will give unfailing entertainment andinstruction. 

JUVENILE STORY BOOKS. 

Seven volumes, illustrated. Price, in cloth, 37 1-2 cents per volume:gilt, 50 cents. 

 Aunt Mary's Stories. Gift Story Book. Good Child's Fairy Gift. Frank and Fanny. Country Scenes and Characters. Peep at the Animals. Peep at the Birds. 

LITTLE MARY; or, Talks and Tales for Children. By H. TRUSTA. Beautifullyprinted and finely illustrated. 16mo. Price, muslin, 60 cents; muslin, full gilt, 88 cents. 

UNCLE FRANK'S BOYS' AND GIRLS' LIBRARY. A beautiful series, comprisingsix volumes, square 16mo. , with eight tinted Engravings in each volume. The following are their titles respectively;

 I. The Pedler's Boy; or, I'll be Somebody. II. The Diving Bell; or, Pearls to be sought for. III. The Poor Organ Grinder; and other Stories. IV. Loss and Gain; or, Susy Lee's Motto. V. Mike Marble; his Crotchets and Oddities. VI. The Wonderful Letter Bag of Kit Curious. 

By FRANCIS C. WOODWORTH. Price, bound in muslin, 50 cents per volume;muslin, gilt, 75 cents per volume. 

Catalogues of the publications P. S. & Co. Sent, post paid, uponapplication. 

PUBLISHED BYPHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO. , Boston, And for sale by all Booksellers in the United States.