for the future:we wish rather to look at the Subordinate Institutions for the public education of the people, whose aim is to furnish the youth of our land with the rudiments of learning.

After a nation has provided for the common material wants of protection, food, shelter, clothing, and the like, the most important work is to educate the rising generation. To do this is not merely a duty which the father owes to his own child, but which Society, in virtue of its Eminent Paternity, owes to every child born in its bosom. The Right of the State to control alike person and property, is continually set forth, till it often comes to be considered as superior to Reason and Conscience; but the Duty of the State to watch over the culture of its children is too often forgot. But this Duty is coextensive with the Right, and both grow out of the relation of sovereignty which the State holds over the individuals that compose it.

It has always been acknowledged that Society owes something to each person subject to its power. In the rudest ages of social existence it is felt to be the duty of the State to protect, as far as possible, the Lives of its citizens from the violence of a public enemy from abroad, or a private enemy at home, Next it becomes recognized as a natural duty to protect also the Property of each man, as well as his Person: then the State admits its obligation to aid all its citizens or subjects in their Religious Culture, and so, in some form or other, provides for the Public Worship of the God of the State. There is no government in Europe which does not admit all these obligations. All have established Armies, Jails, and Churches, with their appropriate furniture, to protect the Persons and Property of their subjects, and do something to advance their Religious Culture. At a period of social progress considerably more advanced, the State first admits it is a public duty of the sovereign power to defend a man from Want, and save him from starvation, not only in times of famine and war, but in the ordinary state of things. At a period of progress still more recent, it is also recognized as a public duty to look after the Education of all the children of the State. This duty rests on the same foundation with the others. At this day it is admitted by all civilians, that each citizen has a right to claim of his State protection for Property and Person; Food enough, likewise, to keep him from perishing-on condition that he

does what he can to protect himself. In New England and most of the enlightened states of the world, it is also admitted that each child has a Right, likewise, to claim of the State an opportunity of acquiring the rudiments of Education. But how far ought the State to carry this Education, which is to be placed within the reach of all? The answer to this question we will attempt to give in another part of this article, only premising here, that in a progressive people the zero-point of Education is continually rising; what was once the Maximum of hope, one day becomes the Minimum of sufferance.

In New England it has long been admitted in practice, though not proclaimed in our political theories, that the State owes each child in it a chance to obtain the average education, so far as schools can secure that attainment. Our scheme of Public Education of the People is one of the most original things in America. In Literature and Science America has hitherto shown little invention, and has achieved little worth mentioning. In Business the nation is eminently creative, and in Politics we are the most original of nations, both in respect of Ideas and the forms in which they become actual. With these exceptions, the New England scheme of Public Education, now extended over most of the free states, is the most original thing which America has produced. Take New England as a whole, with the states which have descended from her- her public free schools are the noblest monument of the character of the people; of their industry, their foresight, their vigorous and thrifty manhood. New England has been complimented for her ships, her roads of earth and ironher factories, her towns, and her shops; she has often looked with pride on her churches, once the dwelling-place of such piety, and long the bulwark of civil freedom in the new world: but she has far more reason to be proud-if aught human may be proud-of her Common Schools. These are more honorable to her head and heart, than even the great political and legal institutions which have grown around them, and above them, often, but always out of the same soil.

Democracy is the government of all the citizens for the sake of all the citizens, and by means of them all. Of course, it is only possible on condition that it is itself conducted by the eternal laws of Justice, which man has not made, but only found made; otherwise it will not be for the sake of ALL, but hostile to the welfare of some. Such a Democracy is of course

only an Ideal as yet. But the prevalent Sentiments of Amer ica, especially of New England and her descendant states, are democratic; her Ideas are democratic; her Institutions, in the main, democratic, all progressively tending towards that Ideal. The Public Schools of New England have grown out of these democratic sentiments and ideas, their growth as unavoidable as that of lichens and mosses on Monadnock.

Democracy is the Ideal of America. But it is an Ideal which can never be realized except on the condition that the People, the whole People, are well educated, in the large sense of that word. There may be a Monarchy - despotic or constitutional, or an Aristocracy, without any considerable culture on the part of the mass of the People; but a Democracy under such circumstances cannot be. A nation of ignorant savages may be governed: it is only a wise People that can govern themselves. The very political constitution of New England, therefore, demands a degree of culture in the People hitherto unknown in the most advanced nations of the world. Thus in America there is not only the general duty of Society to educate all its members, but also the special duty of a democratic government which thereby is fulfilling the most imperative conditions of its existence.

At the first settlement of America, it was not possible for the infant state, struggling for existence, to spend much time in the education of the children; yet, considering all things, the ideal set up in New England, in the seventeenth century, was exceedingly high, and the achievement, likewise, greater than a sanguine man would have dared predict. At this day, the intelligence of the mass is much enhanced, and the wealth thereof is prodigiously increased. The zero-point of Public Education has also risen.

This may be laid down as a maxim-that it is the duty of Society to afford every child born in it a chance of obtaining the best education which the genius of the child is capable of receiving, and the wealth and intelligence of Society are capable of bestowing. It seems to us, from the very nature of man and of Society, that each child has just as good a claim for this as for protection from violence or starvation. Much, doubtless, will be possible in the way of education, a hundred years hence, not thought of now; but now much is possible which is not attempted-much not even hoped for. When the opportunity for obtaining even a liberal culture is afforded to all, is there danger that men will leave the laborious call

ings of life, and rush to what are called the educated professions? Quite the contrary. There will always be five hundred good carpenters to one good philosopher or poet. There are but few men who have an innate preference for being lawyers, ministers, and doctors, rather than farmers, shoemakers, and blacksmiths. Many are now in the professions solely because these offered a chance for some liberal culture which the trade did not afford, though otherwise far more attractive. When education is thought equally necessary for the Farmer and the Lawyer, and all honest and useful callings equally honorable, there is more danger that the office be neglected than the field; we may safely count on more corn and less litigation.

The process of education at this day consists of three distinct things.

I. The Acquisition of certain Positive Knowledge, namely, of the Facts of Science and the Facts of History, also the Ideas of Science and History.

including

II. The development of the Faculties of the Learner, so that he may also effectually possess all his natural powers, and act originally for himself. At present the Common Schools do a little of both; the High Schools and Colleges a little more. But in the Common Schools, taken as a whole, so far as we know-far too little is attempted in the way of an original development of the faculties themselves. Memory and Imitation are the chief faculties which are cultivated. The reason of this is too plain to need showing.

Now the foundation of the Public Education of the People must be laid in the Common Schools. Take the whole population of any northern state, perhaps not more than an eighth part of the people receive any instruction from any private school. The faults, then, of the Common Schools will show themselves in the character of the people, and that in a single generation.

The Common Schools, therefore, are the most important institutions of New England. If there had been none such for two hundred years past, the mass of men would have been unable to read, and write, and calculate; those attainments would be the monopoly of a few men of superior wealth or superior natural ability. As the natural consequence, Agriculture would have been in a poor state; Commerce in a poor state; Manufactures a hundred years behind their present condition. There would not be the signs of life, activity, thrift, of contin

ual progress, visible all over the New England states. The crowds which in Boston now attend the lectures of the Lowell Institute, and other means of instructive or refined amusement, would seek their entertainment in a Bull-fight, or a Bearbaiting; perhaps in a Man-fight of Bruisers in a ring, or a Soldier-baiting on the Common. Public lectures would be as rare in Boston, as in Montreal, Halifax, or even New Orleans and Naples. The government would not be a Democracy, getting more and more democratic, but a Despotism in the form of a Monarchy or Aristocracy; a government OVER all, but by a few, and against the interest of the many. The Few and the Strong would own the bodies of the Weak and the Many in New England, as well as in South Carolina and Morocco. There would not be a hundred churches in Boston, filled by intelligent men of more than a hundred different ways of thinking on religious matters each claiming freedom of conscience; but three or four magnificent and costly temples, in which the ignorant and squalid people, agape for miracles, ridden by their rulers, and worse ridden by their priests, met to adore some relic of a Saint-the pocket-handkerchief of the Mother of God, and the nail from the cross, or from the horse the Queen of Sheba did not ride, a hair from Saint Joseph's beard, or perhaps the seamless coat of Christ! The city would swarm with monks dedicated to ignorance and filthiness, and religiously fulfilling at least that part of their vow, There would be slaves in New England, not black slaves alone, but white; Freedom would be in few hands; Land in few hands; Education in few hands; Power in few hands; Comfort and Virtue in few hands. New England might then be the Heaven of the Rich and the Noble, the Purgatory of the Wise and the Good, but the Hell of the Poor and the Weak.

If there had never been any public schools for girls in New England, then the majority of women would have had the monopoly of ignorance. They would be the slaves of the men; not their companions. The hardest and most revolting work, in the streets, the scows, and the drains, would be performed by the hands of sisters, wives, mothers. Woman would be the victim of Lust, of Intemperance, of every crime — trod down into the dust, but poisoning still the oppressive foot.

On the other hand, if the Public Schools could have been better could have been as good and well attended in 1748 as now, New England would have gained, perhaps, at the least, fifty years. Where would have been the Intemperance, the Pau