HINTS 
 
 ON A 
 
 SYSTEM 
 
 OF 
 
 POPULAR EDUCATION: 
 
 ADDRESSED TO R. S. FIELD, ESQ. 
 
 CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION IN THE LEGISLATURE OF NEW 
 JERSEY ; AND TO 
 
 THE REV. A. B. DOD, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY. 
 
 / 
 
 BY E. C /wines, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " TWO YEARS AND A HALF IN THE NAVY," 
 
 AND LATE PRINCIPAL OF THE EDGEHILL SCHOOL. 
 
 / 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 HOGAN AND THOMPSON, 
 
 30 NORTH FOURTH STREET. 
 
 1838. 
 
U C ^ 5 
 
 t.^ (~. 
 
 Entered, according to the act of Congress, by E. C. Wines, in the 
 Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 C. SHERMAN AND CO., PRINTERS, 
 
 19 St. James Street. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Whoever writes a book, must write a pre- 
 face. This is one of the laws of the trade: 
 whether it is more honoured in the breach, or in 
 the observance, it is not for us to decide. It is at 
 least a time-honoured custom, from which we 
 shall not, on the present occasion, hazard a de- 
 parture. 
 
 The Preface is generally an Author's Confes- 
 sional; wherein he duly bepraises his own mo- 
 desty, sets forth the hurry and various embarrass- 
 ments under which his work was written, and 
 then humbly craves absolution from the officiating 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 priest, who is no other than that respectable and 
 ever indulgent personage the Public. This is all 
 very well, and it usually passes for — what it is 
 worth. 
 
 Though by no means insensible to the many 
 deficiencies and imperfections which mark the fol- 
 lowing production, the Author offers no apology for 
 presenting it to his countrymen, and soliciting for 
 it a candid perusal, and a dispassionate judgment, 
 not so much on its literary merits, as on the prac- 
 ticability and expediency of carrying out its 
 views and recommendations. He holds that who- 
 evei" publishes a book, which he does not at least 
 hope will be useful, not only commits an act of 
 consummate folly, but is guilty of a fraud of the 
 worst kind. Nay, he is chargeable with a two- 
 fold fraud. He deliberately plunders his fellow- 
 men of both money and time, and is the more re- 
 prehensible, inasmuch as his robbery detracts from 
 our mental as well as our pecuniary resources. 
 
 The work presented to the public in the follow- 
 ing pages, is the result of much experience, and 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 some reading and observation on the subject to 
 which it relates. It would no doubt have been im- 
 proved in style by a little more attention to that 
 canon of Horace, wherein he enjoins long waiting 
 and many a blot. But the Author writes for utility, 
 rather than fame ; his object is to excite to sober 
 reflection, rather than to amuse a vacant hour; 
 and he trusts, therefore, that where his principles 
 are approved, relating as they do to whatever im- 
 parts dignity to character, stability to virtue, and 
 refinement to happiness, minor defects will be 
 overlooked, or treated with indulgence. 
 
 It may be thought by some that I have dis- 
 cussed the question of religious instruction too 
 much in detail, and quoted too copiously on that 
 point from other authors. Perhaps I have. If so, 
 the unspeakable importance of the subject, and 
 the unreasonable prejudices even of the good in 
 relation to it, will, it is hoped, be considered a suf- 
 ficient apology. 
 
 Thus much it was perhaps fitting to say. Let 
 
 1* 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 this suffice. Without further preliminary, the 
 Author "casts his bread upon the waters" with 
 the earnest hope and prayer that he may " find 
 it after many days." 
 
 January 1, 1838. 
 
DEDICATION 
 
 TO 
 
 MESSRS. FIELD AND DOD. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, 
 
 I dedicate and address the following pages to you, 
 not because I think them particularly worthy of 
 your notice, nor yet for the purpose of enlightening 
 you in reference to the subject, concerning which 
 they treat. Whatever other errors I may have 
 committed, I am at least guiltless of so gross a pre- 
 sumption. 
 
 I am actuated by a different motive. The occa- 
 sion affords me an opportunity, which I gladly em- 
 brace, of publicly expressing my personal regard, 
 founded upon long intercourse, and of bearing testi- 
 
12 DEDICATION. 
 
 mony to your zealous services in behalf of the cause 
 of Popular Education. 
 
 Shall I avow an additional naotive, rather selfish 
 in its character ? The truth may as well be con- 
 fessed. I hoped to impart a somewhat more lively 
 air. to a treatise, destined, I fear, to be more repul- 
 sive, in any form, to the generality of readers, than 
 I could desire. 
 
 You will perhaps inquire whether I expect you 
 to become the advocates of the immediate adoption 
 in practice of all the views I have attempted to en- 
 force ? I answer frankly, no ; nor do I thus advo- 
 cate them myself. I do not think it either expedient 
 to make the attempt to the extent here intimated at 
 the present time, or possible to accomphsh the ob- 
 ject, if it were attempted. And this opinion, or 
 something like it, I have expressed in the body of 
 the work. My aim has been to trace the outHnes 
 of such a system of public instruction as, in my 
 judgment, every State in this Union ought, sooner 
 or later, to adopt ; and one which, I am persuaded, 
 all may ultimately secure, by the gradual operation 
 
DEDICATION. 13 
 
 of moral causes, aided by judicious legislation. The 
 standard I have sketched is high ; but nnay not the 
 child be already in existence, who will see practical 
 education fully up to it, if not even beyond 1 I 
 should esteem the gift of foresight any thing but a 
 blessing, if it revealed to me the certainty, that this 
 would not be the case. At the same time I am free 
 to declare that, if I were drawing a bill to present 
 to any legislature in the United States at the present 
 time, I would take good care to omit much that I 
 have recommended in these Hints. 
 
 If the principles herein advocated, and the sug- 
 gestions hazarded, meet your enlightened approba- 
 tion, if they are favourably received by my fellow 
 citizens generally, and, more than ail, if they con- 
 tribute in any degree to hasten the result so ardently 
 desired, — the improvement and perfection of our 
 common schools, — my highest ambition will have 
 been satisfied. 
 
 With the expression of a devout wish that your 
 career of usefulness may be long and uninterrupted, 
 
14 DEDICATION. 
 
 and that your labours in this cause, as well as others, 
 may conduce alike to your own fame, and to the 
 benefit of your country, and of mankind, I am. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 Your friend and faithful servant. 
 
 The Author. 
 Princeton, New Jersey, January 1, 1838. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 NECESSITY OF POPULAR EDUCATION. DUTY OF 
 EDUCATING THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Importance of Popular Education — Object of the Work — Salu- 
 tary Nature of the Contest beween Prejudice and the Spirit of 
 Innovation — Precipitate Action to be avoided — The Duty of 
 making Provision by Law for the Education bf the People — 
 Influence of Education in elevating- the Character and pro- 
 moting the Happiness of Nations — Comparison between Scot- 
 land and Ireland — Oberlin and the Ban de la Roche — Influ- 
 ence of Education on Families — Contrast between a well Edu- 
 cated and an Ignorant Family — Foster's Picture of an Igno- 
 rant Family — Influence of Education on Individuals — Pro- 
 motes Personal Dignity and Happiness — Combe's Contrast 
 between Savage and Civilised Man — Universal Education a 
 Pecuniary Gain to a Country — First, by its Effect on Legisla- 
 tion — Secondly, by diminishing Expensive Amusements and 
 checking Sensual Indulgences — Thirdly, by diminishing the 
 Spirit and consequently the Expense of Litigation — Fourthly, 
 by its tendency to diminish Pauperism, and to lessen the 
 number of Criminal Prosecutions — Fifthly, by increasing the 
 
16 CONTENTS. 
 
 Capacity of each Individual in the Community, by enabling- 
 him to turn his Powers to the best account, and by Prolonging 
 the average Period of Human Existence — Sixth, by its ten- 
 dency to quicken ingenuity, and thus to promote original 
 inventions and Discoveries — and Seventh, by enabling men 
 to push their Researches indefinitely into the Powers and 
 Production of Physical Nature — Connexion of Popular Educa- 
 tion with the Perpetuity of our Civil Institutions — Our Political 
 Fabric encompassed with Dangers — Education the Remedy, 
 the only adequate Safeguard — Summing up of the Argument in 
 support of the Necessity of Popular Educntion, and the Duty 
 of the State to provide for it. - - - 25-99 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BRANCHES OF STUDY PROPER FOR COMMON 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 Preliminary Inquiry into the Nature and Object of Education — 
 This Term, in its broadest sense, comprehends all the Influ- 
 ences which act upon Man — These Influences ranged by Fos- 
 ter under five Heads — A Sixth added — Education produces 
 two classes of Effects — Important in both Aspects, and why — 
 Object of Education — Complex Nature of Man must be consi- 
 dered — His Relations must be understood — These Relations 
 pointed out — His Destination — His Relations and Destina- 
 tion indicate the Education suited to his Nature — Education 
 should be such as to develope our Powers, communicate useful 
 
CONTENTS. 17 
 
 Knowledge, and form the Disposition and the Habit of Virtue 
 — A System of Popular Education should prescribe a Course 
 of Study — Text-Books prescribed by Law in Saxe Weimar — 
 Analytical Description of them — Course of Study enjoined by 
 Law upon the Primary Schools of Prussia — The Prussian sys- 
 tem decried in an Article in the first Number of the Democra- 
 tic Review — Sophistry of the Argument, and Illiberality of 
 the Attack — Our Common Schools compared with those of 
 Saxe Weimar and Prussia — Their Inferiority — Limited Course 
 of Studies — Superficial Nature of the Instructions given — In- 
 difference of Parents — A Fundamental Reform necessary — 
 List of Studies should be extended — Instruction should be 
 made more thorough — Enumeration of Branches proper to be 
 introduced into Common Schools — Objection to the Course re- 
 commended " that it would consume too much time," answer- 
 ed — The Author's Views confirmed by the Course of Study re- 
 commended by Dick — Necessity of Moral and Religious In- 
 struction insisted upon more at large — ^Religious Education 
 the Foundation of all good Character — Essential to the full 
 Advantage of Intellectual Education — Objection to the Intro- 
 duction of Religious Instruction into Popular Schools — Not 
 founded in Reason — Government owes Christianity a heavy 
 Debt, and is bound, as far as possible, to discharge it — The 
 awakening of Sectarian Jealousies apprehended — Method by 
 which these are allayed in Prussia — Can it not be done in this 
 Country ? — Weight of Autliority in favour of Religious In- 
 struction in Schools — Opinions of Simpson, Bulwer, Cousin, 
 and Dick, on this Question — The objection to Universal Edu- 
 cation, " that it would raise the Labouring Classes above their 
 Sphere," considered and answered — Objection to the Plan re- 
 commended founded on the Principle " that each Parent ought 
 
 2 
 
18 CONTENTS. 
 
 to educate his own Children" — This Objection based on Sel- 
 fishness — A just Comprehension of the Selfish Principle itself 
 refutes it. 100-148 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 QUALIFICATION OF TEACHERS. 
 
 Importance of this point — Our present Deficiency in well qualified 
 Instructors — Classes of Men who chiefly engage in this busi- 
 ness — Motives which actuate them — Their ignorance — Inade- 
 quate Views of Parents — Anecdotes illustrative of this — A 
 Teacher in the Ban de la Roche — Empirical Methods of In- 
 struction — Inefficiency in Government — Its Cause — School- 
 Teaching for the most part a Temporary Business — Some 
 Exceptions to the above Remarks — Bad effects of the present 
 State of Things on Teachers and Pupils — Our general Intel- 
 ligence as a Nation admitted — Not attributable to our Popular 
 Schools — Its true Causes pointed out — Glorious Results 
 might be looked for from the Union of these Causes and 
 a well organized System of Popular Education — Conditions of 
 such a System — Provision for the Education of Teachers a 
 most important Condition — Practical Error of Parents in this 
 Matter — Deplorable Effect of it — Teaching must be made a 
 Profession, and become respectable — No office more truly 
 honourable than that of an Instructor — Its present degradation 
 — Must be raised to its proper Rank — This can be effected only 
 by the Establishment of Teachers' Seminaries — Institutions 
 of this Kind the intellectual Want of the Age — Prussia al- 
 
CONTENTS. 19 
 
 ready supplied with them — Reference to son^e other Countries 
 — Origin and History of these Institutions — Their great Import- 
 ance — They are the Life-Blood of an efficient System of Popu- 
 lar Education — Their Necessity insisted on by all Writers on 
 both sides of the Atlantic — Extract from the Edinburgh Re- 
 view on this Subject — The question examined whether these 
 Seminaries should be connected with other Institutions, or 
 exist under a separate Organization — Three Reasons for prefer- 
 ring the latter Plan — Its effect would be better, first, on the 
 character of the Teacher ; secondly, on their Respectability ; 
 thirdly, on their Education — General Principles of Organiza- 
 tion — Two leading Results to be aimed at — good Teachers 
 and some security that they will exercise their Profession in 
 the State where educated — Details more difficult — The lights of 
 Experience wanting among us — Must look to Prussia for 
 Model Schools— Conduct of Men in Parallel Cases in the ordi- 
 nary Business of Life— Propriety and Utility of sending 
 Agents to examine and report upon the Prussian Schools. 149- 
 185. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 COMPENSATION OF TEACHERS. 
 
 Present inadequate Compensation of Teachers — No Class in the 
 Community so poorly rewarded — Wages of Mechanics and 
 other Manual-Labourers as compared with the pay of School- 
 Masters — Compensation of Instructers as indicated by the 
 
20 CONTENTS. 
 
 School-Returns of Massachusetts and New York — Alarming 
 Nature of the Facts disclosed by these Returns — Manifold 
 Evils of this ill-judged Parsimony — Examination into the 
 Claims of Competent and Faithful Teachers to receive a libe- 
 ral Reward — Justice requires it — Sound Policy requires it — 
 Teachers should be supplied with the Means of maintaining a 
 Family — The Question, what would be a fair average Salary ? 
 considered — Inquiry into the Cost of the System recommend- 
 ed — Twenty Millions a Year for the Whole United States — 
 This Sum compared with the Object in View and the Advan- 
 tages that would result from the Attainment of the Object — 
 Whence is the Money to come? — This Question dispassionate- 
 ly answered — First, from the Annual Proceeds arising from 
 the Sale of Public Lands — Secondly, from the Interest of the 
 Surplus Revenue deposited with the States — Thirdly, from the 
 Avails of present and additional Grants of Land for this Pur- 
 pose — These three Sources would give ten Millions a Year — 
 The other ten Millions to be raised by the Districts them- 
 selves — Those who refuse, to receive none of the Public 
 Money — Present Endowments — Bequests — The Nation ex- 
 pends liberally for less important Objects — Florida War — 
 Last War with Great Britain — Astounding Fact in relation to 
 the Cost of the Wars in which England was concerned be- 
 tween 1688 and 1815 — Enough to Educate the whole World 
 to the End of Time — Poverty and Economy of Nations when 
 Education is to be provided for — Our Parsimony in main- 
 taining Schools a National Disgrace — A more liberal Compen- 
 sation to Schoolmasters essential to an efficient Education of 
 the People — The necessary Expenditure really small in Com- 
 parison with our Resources and the Vastness of the Object to 
 be gained. 186-204 
 
CONTENTS. 21 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BOOKS, CABINETS, AND APPARATUS— LOCATION 
 AND ARCHITECTURE OF SCHOOL HOUSES. 
 
 Aversion of Children to Study — Knowledge the natural Food of 
 the Mind — Misdirected Love of Knowledge the Occasion of 
 the Fall of Man — Pleasures of Knowledge exemplified in the 
 Cases of Archimedes and Sir Isaac Newton — Solution of the 
 apparent Contradiction involved in the general Aversion to 
 Study and the innate Love of Knowledge — Attributable to the 
 Want of good School-Books and the Prevalence of bad Me- 
 thods of Instruction — Any other Explanation would impugn 
 the Wisdom and Goodness of God — Decision of Reason on 
 this Point — Testimony of Experience — Various Cases referred 
 to — Letter of a Young Man mentioned by Mr. Combe — 
 Branches of Learning pursued in German Boarding-Schools 
 — The Teacher the Friend of his Pupils — Inspection and 
 Explanation of Machinery — Pedestrian Excursions into the 
 Country — Last several Weeks — Pupils required to v^'rite Jour- 
 nals — The Author's own Practice while Principal of the Edge- 
 bill School — Its Results — Improvements made in School-Books 
 of late Years — Higher Improvements needed — Difficulty of 
 preparing Text-Books of a proper Character — Requires a high 
 Order of Talent and great Learning and Experience — Gene- 
 ral Principles on which all School-Books should be constructed 
 — Class-Books now in use compared with this Standard — 
 Verbal Instruction instead of real — Philosophy of the Infant 
 Mind should be studied — The Leadings of Nature followed — 
 Lessons on Objects — Biographies — Stories of Real Life — Im- 
 portance of Truth — Reading — Books on Natural History and 
 
22 CONTENTS. 
 
 cognate Sciences — Misapprehension guarded against — Mis- 
 cellaneous Library — Of what Classes of Works to be composed 
 — Cabinets of Natural History — Chemical and Philosophical 
 Apparatus — Influence of these Aids — Location and Architec- 
 ture of School-houses — Objects of Importance — Present De- 
 fects — Improvements recommended. - - 205-224 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GENERALORGANIZATION— OBSTACLES— EN- 
 COURAGEMENTS. 
 
 A good Organic Constitution necessary to the efficiency of a sys- 
 tem of Popular Education — A Consideration of the Objects to 
 be accomplished by it necessary to its Formation — -Various 
 Officers essential — Their Services should be remunerated — 
 Organization should be as simple as possible — Superintendent 
 of Public Instruction — County Commissioners — Trustees for 
 Townships — School Inspectors — Their various Duties — Means 
 for securing Regular Attendance of Pupils, and Fidelity and 
 Teachers — Diffidence with which these Suggestions are made 
 — Consideration of Obstacles — Indifference of the People — 
 Various Proofs of it — Lagging Legislation — Feebleness of Vo- 
 luntary Associations — Periodicals on Education unsupported 
 — Difficulty of removing this Indifference — Admitted Costli 
 ness a great Obstacle — Ought not to be — Friends of Educa- 
 tion must be content to labour for remote Results — Obstacles 
 arising from Points in our Social System, and Traits in our 
 
CONTENTS. 23 
 
 National Character — The Lust of Wealth and the Leaven of 
 Ag-itation hinder Reform — Multiplication and Intermingling 
 of Religious Sects a Hindrance — Remoteness and Impalpable 
 nature of the Benefits to be gained a great Impediment — Our 
 duty to provide for Posterity— This duty plainly written on the 
 Creator's Plan — Pleasure arising from its Performance — En- 
 couragements — Indifference giving way — Much has been al- 
 ready accomplished — Formation of Lyceums — Example of 
 other Countries — Popular Education not a Political Question 
 — The Press unanimous in its Favour— Concluding Appeal to 
 Statesmen and Legislators. - . « 225-255 
 
HINTS 
 
 ON 
 
 POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 NECESSITY OF POPULAR EDUCATION. DUTY 
 OF EDUCATING THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Importance of Popular Education — Object of the Work — Salu- 
 tar}'^ Nature of the Contest between Prejudice and the Spirit 
 of Innovation — Precipitate Action to be avoided — The Duty 
 of making Provision by Law for the Education of the People 
 — Influence of Education in elevating the Character and pro- 
 moting the Happiness of Nations — Comparison between 
 Scotland and Ireland — Oberlin and the Ban de la Roche — 
 Influence of Education on Families — Contrast between a 
 well Educated and an Ignorant Family — Foster's Picture of 
 an Ignorant Family — Influence of Education on Individuals 
 — Promotes Personal Dignity and Happiness — Combe's con- 
 trast between Savage and Civilized Man — Universal Educa- 
 tion a Pecuniary Gain to a Country — First, by its EiFect on 
 Legislation — Secondly, by diminishing Expensive Amuse- 
 ments and checking Sensual Indulgences — Thirdly, by di- 
 minishing the Spirit and consequently the Expense of Liti- 
 gation — Fourthly, by its tendency to diminish Pauperism, 
 and to lessen the number of Criminal Prosecutions — Fifthly, 
 by increasing the Capacity of each Individual in the Com- 
 
 3 
 
26 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Importance of Popular Education. Object of the Work. 
 
 munity, by enabling him to turn his Powers to the best ac- 
 count, and by Prolonging the average Period of Human 
 Existence — Sixth, by its tendency to quicken Ingenuity, and 
 thus to promote original Inventions and Discoveries — and 
 Seventh, by enabling Men to push their Researches indefi- 
 nitely into the Powers and Productions of Physical Nature 
 — Connexion of Popular Education with the Perpetuity of 
 our Civil Institutions — Our Political Fabric encompassed with 
 Dangers — Education the Remedy, the only adequate Safe- 
 guard — Summing up of the Argument in support of the 
 Necessity of Popular Education, and the Duty of the State 
 to provide for it, 
 
 Gentlemen : — 
 
 The subject of Popular Education has excited 
 considerable interest of late years not only among 
 the people, but in the legislatures, of many of the 
 States of this Union. No subject can more wor- 
 thily occupy the thoughts, or call into action the 
 energies of our citizens, in their individual or 
 social capacity. The cause of education is em- 
 phatically the cause of the people. Its importance 
 transcends and overshadows that of most, if not 
 all, others, which fall within the scope of legisla- 
 tive action. It is identified with the cause of 
 morality and religion, with the true glory and 
 prosperity of the nation, and with all the most 
 important interests of society. To exhibit its 
 importance, to point out some of the deficiencies 
 of our existing systems of education, and to pre- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 27 
 
 Contest between Prejudice and the spirit of Innovation. 
 
 sent some views as to the degree of perfection at 
 which we ought to aim, and ultimately to arrive, 
 is the object of the following pages. The subject 
 will not be treated in detail. The author will 
 confine himself, conformably to what is intimated 
 in the title-page, to a few practical " hints" in re- 
 lation to it ; which, however, he hopes will meet 
 with your approval, and with the general appro- 
 bation of his countrymen, and which, in all mo- 
 desty, he commends to your and their candid 
 consideration ; more on account of the magnitude 
 of the subject and the greatness of the interests 
 involved, than for any peculiar merit he supposes 
 they may possess as a literary production. 
 
 Between the prejudice which clings with unre- 
 laxing grasp to whatever enjoys the sanction of 
 age, and the spirit of innovation which would 
 prostrate with Vandal fury every long established 
 institution and usage, the contest that ever has 
 been and ever must be maintained, is in the 
 highest degree salutary. In the great moral and 
 political changes which have taken place in the 
 w^orld, especially those in free states — there have 
 been for the most part three classes of agents ; 
 those who could see no good in any thing new, 
 those who were equally blind to the excellence of 
 all that was old, and those who have occupied a 
 middle ground, giving to the arguments of each 
 
28 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Illustrated by the History of various Nations. 
 
 of the other parties their just weight, and willing 
 to retain the gold and reject the dross in recon- 
 structing any of the elements of society. 
 
 This, it is needless to inform you, was eminent- 
 ly characteristic of political parties in the several 
 states of ancient Greece, and in the Roman Com- 
 monwealth. The history of politics in the repub- 
 lics of modern Italy, in France and England, and 
 in various other countries both of Europe and 
 America, affords many and striking examples of 
 the same tendency in human nature. It is well 
 that it is so. This, like all the other moral laws 
 of the Creator, bears the impress of matchless wis- 
 dom and benevolence. For, while the obstinately 
 prejudiced and the madly revolutionary are en- 
 gaged in hot strife with each other, the one 
 party for the old as it is, the other for the substitu- 
 tion of something entirely new, the mass of the 
 people, almost always averse to violent innova- 
 tions, but roused by the fierce din with which 
 they are assailed, are incited to inquire, " What is 
 the occasion of all this turmoil? Why such 
 fierce contention? What abuses are to be cor- 
 rected? What institutions modified? What changes 
 wrought?" The representative intelligence of this 
 class, bringing to the examination of these ques- 
 tions broader views and cooler feelings, is ena- 
 bled to discriminate and weigh the arguments of 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 29 
 
 Precipitancy to be avoided. 
 
 each party, and, by the adoption of suitable mea- 
 sures, to effect such gradual improvements as the 
 exigencies of the times seem either to require or 
 justify. 
 
 There is not, I am aware, so much danger of 
 excess in organizing a system of common schools, 
 and therefore not so much necessity for incul- 
 cating moderation in reference to it, as there would 
 be with respect to some other measures ; still it is 
 well to understand and avoid the evils of precipi- 
 tancy. Bad as the systems adopted in many of 
 the states confessedly are, and inadequate, as all 
 are admitted to be, they may be made much worse 
 by hasty and ill-judged legislation. Time, — much 
 time, is necessary both for making the proper in- 
 vestigations as to the best plans of operation, and 
 for preparing the minds of the people for all those 
 ameliorations, which are demanded by the spirit 
 of the age, and the circumstances of our country. 
 Changes, good in themselves, are, when too sud- 
 denly effected, frequently attended with conse- 
 quences more or less to be deplored. Festina 
 lente, the celebrated motto of Augustus Caesar, 
 is on the whole a sound maxim in reference to any 
 great undertaking, though capable of being abused 
 to cloak indifference, or to justify inaction. 
 
 With these observations by way of introduc- 
 tion, I proceed to present some views, not alto- 
 
 3* 
 
30 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Popular Education a public Duty. 
 
 gether, it is hoped, inappropriate at the present 
 time, on several points which seem to require con- 
 sideration in organising a general system of popu- 
 lar education. 
 
 The first topic to which I ask your attention, and 
 that of the public, is the duty of making adequate 
 provision by law for the thorough instruction of 
 all the children in the community. From a variety 
 of arguments that might be urged in support of 
 this position, I shall select only three, which seem 
 to me sufficient to estabhsh it to the satisfaction of 
 every candid mind. Popular education is neces- 
 sary, and therefore it is the duty of the several 
 states to provide for it ; first, because of its influ- 
 ence on national and individual character and hap- 
 piness ; secondly, because of its bearing on the 
 pecuniary interests of the country ; and thirdly, 
 because of its connexion with the purity and per- 
 petuity of our civil institutions. 
 
 That education, based on Christianity, is adapted 
 to elevate the character and promote the happi- 
 ness of its possessors, is a position which it cannot 
 require any laboured argument to prove, in the 
 nineteenth century, to the citizens of the United 
 States. It is a truth attested by universal expe- 
 rience, and capable of complete demonstration. 
 Were I addressing a popular assembly on this sub- 
 ject, I would say to them, — Cast your eyes abroad 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 31 
 
 Its Influence on National Character and Happiness. 
 
 on the world ; consult time past and present ; com- 
 pare nations, families, and individuals respectively 
 with each other ; — your survey will lead you to 
 this irresistible conclusion, that education, impreg- 
 nated with the principles of true religion, is every 
 where the great promoter of whatsoever things 
 are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
 things are pure, lovely, and of good report ; that 
 it is the parent of virtue, industry, and order ; that 
 it is essential to the full benefits of gospel preach- 
 ing ; and that the want of it is the principal cause 
 of the extreme profligacy, improvidence, and 
 misery, which are so prevalent among the labour- 
 ing classes in many countries. 
 
 A comparison between the Irish and Scottish 
 peasantry would of itself be sufficient to establish 
 this general fact. Among the former we behold 
 little else than sloth, destitution, and crime ; among 
 the latter, even those who are in the worst com- 
 parative circumstances, a degree of comfort, the 
 fruit of industry and order, is every where conspi- 
 cuous. To what is this difference to be ascribed? 
 The Irish possess as vigorous constitutions, and 
 are as capable of enduring hard labour, as the 
 Scotch. In the two great physical elements of 
 prosperity, soil and chmate, Ireland has a clear 
 and decided advantage over Scotland. The differ- 
 ence, then, making every allowance which truth 
 
32 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Comparison between the Scotch and Irish. 
 
 and candour can require for the evils of misgovern- 
 ment in the former country, is owing to the preva- 
 lence of intellectual and moral culture in the one 
 case, and the want of it in the other. No other 
 cause can be named, adequate to the production of 
 the effect ; and consequently to assign any other 
 w^ould be, as you, gentlemen, well know, to violate 
 one of the first principles of philosophy. In Ire- 
 land the education of the poor is deplorably 
 neglected ; few of them can either read or write ; 
 and almost all are ignorant of nearly every thing 
 that it most befits a rational and accountable crea- 
 ture to understand. In Scotland an order of things 
 exists essentially difl^erent. It is rare to meet w-ith 
 a person there who has not some education; 
 schools exist in every parish ; and the means of 
 knowledge are brought within the reach of the 
 lowest classes. The result, in each case, is such 
 as has been already described ; and such as must 
 always take place under like circumstances. 
 
 The most illustrious example, with which I am 
 acquainted, of the elevating and humanizing influ- 
 ence of Christian education on communities, is 
 exhibited in the history of those mountain parishes 
 in the Ban de la Roche under the pastoral care of 
 the celebrated Oberlin — a name embalmed in 
 every philanthropic and pious heart. He who 
 attentively reads the simple narrative of the life 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 33 
 
 Oberlin— The Ban de la Roche. 
 
 and labours of that great and good man, will gain 
 more true instruction than he would by wading 
 through whole folios of theology, metaphysics, and 
 political economy. He will there behold a trans- 
 formation, as wonderful as the scenes of an East- 
 ern romance, wrought, within the brief period of 
 a few years, in the character and condition of a 
 whole community. He will see it rescued from 
 the accumulated evils of ignorance, vice, and po- 
 verty, and raised to the enjoyment of all the bless- 
 ings of knowledge, virtue, and competence. He 
 will perceive industry, order, contentment, and all 
 the social and moral virtues, enthroned in the 
 heart and shining in the life, where but a few 
 years before the whole social fabric was the sport 
 and prey of every capricious and malignant pas- 
 sion. He will behold, in short, a desolate wilder- 
 ness, over which a gloom like the pall of death 
 had brooded for centuries, suddenly converted into 
 the garden of the Lord, with the freshness of Eden 
 covering the scene, and the smile of heaven gilding 
 the prospect. He will learn also the moral of the 
 whole story — the means by which this amazing 
 revolution was effected. And what were they ? 
 Learning and Religion — those guardian angels 
 that watch, wdth spirits ever wakeful and benig- 
 nant, over the happiness of mortals. Christian 
 Education was the sole source of the change, and 
 of all the blessings which followed in its train. 
 
34 ' HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Influence of Education on Families. 
 
 Education is not less benign in its influence on 
 families than on communities. Few contrasts can 
 be imagined stronger than that which exists 
 between an enlightened and well ordered Christian 
 family, and one enveloped in the dank and misty 
 and putrid atmosphere of ignorance ; between the 
 dignity, refinement, and happiness, which mark 
 the domestic relations on the one side, and the bru- 
 tal passions and haggard wretchedness, that reign 
 with undisputed and terrific sway on the other. 
 Foster, in his excellent Essay on the Evils of Popu- 
 lar Ignorance, has sketched, with his usual power, 
 an appalling picture of the ferocity and misery of 
 a family destitute of religious and mental culture. 
 After describing such a family — the menaces and 
 imprecations of the parents, and their want of re- 
 sources for engaging and occupying, for amusing 
 and instructing, the younger minds ; and the strife, 
 rudeness, and insubordination of the children — he 
 adds : — 
 
 "Now, imagine a week, month, or year, of the 
 intercourse in such a domestic society, the course 
 of talk, the mutual manners, and the progress of 
 mind and character; where there is a sense of 
 drudgery approaching to that of slavery, in the 
 unrelenting necessity of labour, where there is 
 none of the interest of imparting knowledge or re- 
 ceiving it, or of reciprocating knowledge that has 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 35 
 
 Picture of an ignorant Family. 
 
 been imparted and received ; where there is not 
 an acre, if we might express it so, of intellectual 
 space around them, clear of the thick universal fog 
 of ignorance, where, especially, the luminaries of 
 the spiritual heaven, the attributes of the Almighty, 
 the grand phenomenon of redeeming mediation, 
 the solemn realities of a future state and another 
 world, are totally obscured in that shade ; where 
 the conscience and the discriminations of duty are 
 dull and indistinct, from the youngest to the oldest ; 
 where there is no genuine respect felt or shown on 
 the one side, nor affection unmixed with vulgar petu- 
 lance and harshness, expressed perhaps in wicked 
 imprecations on the other; where a mutual coarse- 
 ness of manners and language has the effect, with- 
 out their being aware of it as a cause, of debasing 
 their worth in one another's esteem all round ; and 
 where, notwithstanding all, they absolutely must 
 pass a great deal of time together, to converse, 
 and to display their dispositions towards one ano- 
 ther, and exemplify what the primary relations of 
 life are reduced to, when divested of all that is to 
 give them dignity, endearment, and conducive- 
 ness to the highest advantage of existence. 
 
 " Home has but little to please the young mem- 
 bers of such a family, and a great deal to make 
 them eager to escape out of the house ; which is 
 also a welcome riddance to the elder persons, 
 
36 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Strife between Parents and Children. 
 
 when it is not in neglect or refusal to perform the 
 ordinary allotments of labour. So little is the feel- 
 ing of a peaceful cordiality created among them 
 by their seeing one another all within the habita- 
 tion, that, not unfrequently, the passer-by may 
 learn the fact of their collective number being 
 there, from the sound of a low strife of mingled 
 voices, some of them betraying youth replying in 
 anger or contempt,*to maturity or age. It is 
 wretched to see how early this liberty is boldly 
 taken. As the children perceive nothing in the 
 minds of their parents that should awe them into 
 deference, the most important difference left be- 
 tween them is that of physical strength. The chil- 
 dren, if of hardy disposition, to which they are 
 perhaps trained in battles with their juvenile rivals, 
 soon show a certain degree of daring against this 
 superior strength. And as the difference lessons, 
 and by the time it has nearly ceased, what is so 
 natural as that they should assume equality, in 
 manners, and in following their own will ? But 
 equality assumed where there should be subordina- 
 tion, inevitably involves contempt toward the par- 
 ty against whose claim it is asserted. 
 
 " The relative condition of such parents as they 
 sink into old age, is most deplorable. And all that 
 has preceded leads, by a natural course, to that 
 consequence which we have sometimes beheld. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 37 
 
 Deplorable Condition of such Parents in old Ago. 
 
 with feelings emphatically gloomy, — the almost 
 perfect indifference with which the descendants, 
 and a few other near relatives, of a poor old man 
 of this class, could consign him to the grave. A 
 human being was gone out of the world, a being 
 whom they had been near all their lives, some of 
 them sustained in their childhood by his labours, 
 and yet not one heart, at any one moment, felt the 
 sentiment — I have lost [a father or a friend.] They 
 never could regard him with respect, and their 
 miserable education had not taught them humanity 
 enough to regard him in his declining days as an 
 object of pity. Some decency of attention was 
 perhaps shown him, or perhaps not, in his last 
 hours. It is a very melancholy spectacle to see an 
 ignorant, thoughtless father, surrounded by his 
 untaught children, at the sight of whom our 
 thought thus silently accosts him: The event 
 which will take you finally from among them, per- 
 haps after forty or fifty years of intercourse with 
 them, will leave no more impression on their affec- 
 tions, than the cutting down of a decayed old tree 
 in the neighbourhood of your habitation." 
 
 This, it must be confessed, is a high-wrought 
 and most melancholy picture, but who shall say 
 that it is exaggerated ? Owing to the general dif- 
 fusion among us of some degree of intellectual 
 cultivation and religious knowledge and influence, 
 
 4 
 
38 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Originals not wanting among us. 
 
 originals are not, indeed, as common in this coun- 
 try as in some others ; but the memory of many 
 persons will doubtless recall scenes and histories, 
 which might be truly described or narrated in the 
 words of the preceding extracts. And just in 
 proportion as the lights of knowledge and the in- 
 fluences of religion are wanting in families, in the 
 same proportion will their domestic intercourse 
 approach towards a realization of that dreadful 
 representation just presented, and sketched by a 
 sagacious observer of mankind, as a faithful pic- 
 ture of the effect of ignorance on the family circle. 
 
 The converse of this proposition is also unques- 
 tionably true. Christian education, in proportion 
 as it sheds its genial influence on that interesting 
 class of communities now under consideration, 
 will always have the eflfect to exalt, refine, and 
 hallow the domestic relations ; to convert them into 
 unfailing sources of the purest enjoyment; and to 
 render them conducive to the highest end of our 
 being. 
 
 Personal dignity of character and individual 
 happiness are not promoted in a less degree by 
 sound education, than national and social elevation 
 and felicity. Silly atheistical ranters, it is true, are 
 occasionally to be met with, who, in their impious 
 ravings, elevate savage over civilized life; but none 
 but a fool, a knave, or a madman, would contend 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 39 
 
 Influence of Education on Individuals. 
 
 that the barbarian warrior numbering his scalps, 
 or the ignorant drone in civilized countries, whose 
 pleasures are justly described by Paley as scarcely 
 superior to those of the oyster, are to be placed on 
 the same level in these respects with Newton in- 
 vestigating the laws that bind the planets in their 
 orbits ; with Locke, affixing their just limits to the 
 powers of the human mind; with Franklin, teach- 
 ing the lightning to obey his will ; with Milton, 
 soaring to the loftiest regions of poetry ; or with 
 Wilberforce, shaking the British senate with his 
 eloquence. 
 
 These, it is granted, are extreme cases; never- 
 theless they are strictly pertinent to the argument. 
 But let us descend to the lower walks of hfe, and 
 see how we shall find it there. What is it that 
 constitutes the real man ? and where is the seat of 
 happiness, properly so called ? Is it this corporeal 
 frame, which is destined to " perish in the using?" 
 or is it the ethereal essence that dwells within it — 
 this spirit, formed for thought, knowledge, and im- 
 mortality ? You, gentlemen, and all other intelli- 
 gent men, will, with united voice, answer — The 
 latter — and this response does but echo a senti- 
 ment every where inscribed on the pages of the 
 sacred record. 
 
 Happiness cannot be predicated of the senses; 
 it is of too ethereal a nature to dwell in any but a 
 spiritual substance. But the mass of mankind 
 
40 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Elevates the Pleasures of the labouring Classes. 
 
 cannot devote themselves to literary and scientific 
 pursuits. Bodily labour is the inheritance of sin. 
 We are not merely to eat bread, but we are to eat 
 it in the " sweat of our brow;" we may enjoy the 
 earth indeed, but only on the condition of first 
 " subduing it." But the benevolent Author of our 
 being, though justice required the execution of the 
 threatened curse, has so arranged the order of 
 things, that most manual employments do not de- 
 mand the whole attention of those engaged in 
 them ; they leave a considerable portion of time, 
 even during the hours of labour, when the thoughts 
 can be usefully, worthily, and delightfully employ- 
 ed on other subjects. 
 
 This brings us to the point at which I have been 
 aiming. Which of two labouring men has the ad- 
 vantage over the other in point of real dignity and 
 enjoyment — he whose intellect, in the strong lan- 
 guage of the writer above quoted, " suffers a dull 
 absorption, subsides into the mere physical nature, 
 is sunk and sleeping in the animal warmth and 
 functions, and lulled and rocked, as it were, in its 
 lethargy, by the bodily movements in the works 
 which it is not necessary for it to keep habitually 
 awake to direct?" Or he whose mind is in some 
 degree furnished with a knowledge of past and 
 contemporary occurrences, with examples of ele- 
 vated virtue from sacred and profane history, and 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 41 
 
 Affords a Resource for their leisure Hours. 
 
 with an acquaintance with some of the powers of 
 nature, and the causes of those physical phenome- 
 na which every where surround him, and wiiich 
 are constantly beheld by the ignorant herd without 
 emotion or instruction, and regarded as merely 
 common though unintelligible facts ? No person 
 of ordinary intelligence can hesitate in deciding 
 this point. The latter is incomparably superior 
 to the former in the respects here indicated. 
 While his hands are mechanically employed on 
 their wonted tasks, his thoughts can feed upon the 
 knowledge accumulated within. He can thence 
 extract sweet and elevating reflections to beguile 
 the toilsome hours, if he is alone; or interesting 
 anecdotes and useful facts, if others are with him, 
 to enliven the labours of the day, and to amuse or 
 instruct those of his companions whose minds are 
 less cultivated than his own. 
 
 The advantage he possesses is still greater during 
 those intervals of labour which occur through the 
 w^eek, and that longer interval afforded by the 
 Christian Sabbath. During these periods, persons 
 without any of the resources of knowledge, if they 
 are of a phlegmatic temperament, generally pass 
 the time in utter inanity; either sleeping it off 
 their hands, or sunk into a listless unreflecting dul- 
 ness, in which their minds are far less active than 
 
 in actual sleep : or, if they are of a more lively 
 
 4# 
 
42 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Confers a certain Nobility of Ciiaracter. 
 
 turn, they betake themselves to all sorts of coarse 
 and vulgar merriment, the profane scoff, the ribald 
 jest, the blackguard repartee ; or they take refuge 
 in those gross sensual pleasures, which are more 
 hurtful both to themselves and others, than utter 
 vacuity of thought and emotion. Not so with men 
 in whom the seeds of knowledge and religion 
 were sown, and took root in early childhood, gra- 
 dually shooting up into plants, which have since 
 been constantly expanding and unfolding their 
 beauties to the sun, and whose fruit now appears 
 in all its fair proportions, engaging colours, and 
 mellow ripeness. Reading, meditation, innocent 
 amusements, and elevating social pleasures, fill up 
 the leisure hours of such men ; and the Sabbath, 
 — that distinctive and glorious feature in the Chris- 
 tian economy, — is devoted to occupations, alike 
 profitable to themselves and pleasing to its Author. 
 Education, conducted upon sound and compre- 
 hensive principles, confers even upon the poor a 
 quickness of conscience, a strength of principle, a 
 liveliness of sympathy, an erectness, independence, 
 and, as it were, nobility of character, which place 
 them on an eminence, whence they can look down 
 on the misery and degradation of the multitudes 
 that throng the cheerless vales of ignorance be- 
 low. They are often elevated to a region far 
 above the clouds and storms, which darken the 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 43 
 
 Milton's Picture of the Seraph Abdiel. 
 
 horizon, and oppress the hearts of the less intelli- 
 gent and virtuous of their fellow-creatures. They 
 stand in a relation to these somewhat analogous 
 to the position occupied by the loyal Seraph in re- 
 ference to the recreant crew of angels, by whom 
 he was surrounded and solicited to rebelUon. His 
 glorious independence, courage, and strength and 
 elevation of purpose, are portrayed in the follow- 
 ing beautiful lines from Paradise Lost. 
 
 " So spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful found 
 Among the faithless, faithful only he ; 
 Among innumerable false, unmoved, 
 Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, 
 His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal ; 
 Nor number nor example with him wrought 
 To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind, 
 Though single. From amidst them forth he passed. 
 Long way through hostile scorn, which he sustained 
 Superior, nor of violence feared aught; 
 And, with retorted scorn, his back he turned 
 On those proud towers to swift destruction doomed." 
 
 The advantages of education are thus forcibly 
 summed up and set forth by the eloquent Robert 
 Hall, in his sermon on that subject. "Know- 
 ledge," says he, " expands the mind, exalts the fa- 
 culties, refines the taste of pleasure, and opens 
 numerous sources of intellectual enjoyment. By 
 means of it we become less dependent for satisfac- 
 
44 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Pleasure annexed to the pursuit of Truth. 
 
 tion on the sensitive appetites, the gross pleasures 
 of sense are more easily despised, and we are 
 made to feel the superiority of the spiritual to the 
 material part of our nature. Instead of being con- 
 tinually solicited by the influence and irritation of 
 sensible objects, the mind can retire within her- 
 self, and expatiate in the cool and quiet walks of 
 contemplation. The Author of Nature has wisely 
 annexed a pleasure to the exercise of our active 
 powers, especially to the pursuit of truth, which, 
 if it be in some instances less intense, is far more 
 durable than the gratifications of sense, and is on 
 that account, to say nothing of its other proper- 
 ties, incomparably more valuable. It may be re- 
 peated without satiety, and pleases afresh on every 
 reflection upon it. These are self-created satis- 
 factions, always within our reach, not dependent 
 upon events, and not requiring a peculiar combi- 
 nation of circumstances to produce or maintain 
 them. Let the mind but retain its proper func- 
 tions, and they spring up spontaneously, unsolicit- 
 ed, unborrowed, and unbought." 
 
 " Man, ignorant and uncivilized, is a ferocious, 
 sensual, and superstitious savage. The external 
 world affords some enjoyment to his animal feel- 
 ings, but it confounds his moral and intellectual 
 faculties. External nature exhibits to his mind a 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 45 
 
 Contrast between savage and civilized Man. 
 
 mighty chaos of events, and a dread display of 
 power. The chain of causation appears too intri- 
 cate to be unravelled, and the power too stupen- 
 dous to be controlled. Order and beauty, indeed, 
 occasionally gleam forth to his eye, from detached 
 portions of creation, and seem to promise happi- 
 ness and joy ; but, more frequently, clouds and 
 darkness brood over the scene, and disappoint 
 his fondest expectations. Evil seems so mixed 
 up with good, that he regards it either as its direct 
 product, or its inseparable accompaniment. Na- 
 ture is never contemplated with a clear percep- 
 tion of its adaptation to the purpose of promoting 
 the true enjoyment of man, or with a well-founded 
 confidence in the wisdom and benevolence of its 
 Author. Man, when civilized and illuminated by 
 knowledge, on the other hand, discovers in the ob- 
 jects and occurrences around him a scheme beau- 
 tifully arranged for the gratification of his whole 
 powers, animal, moral, and intellectual; he recog- 
 nises in himself the intelligent and accountable 
 subject of an all-bountiful Creator, and in joy and 
 gladness desires to study the Creator's works, to 
 ascertain his laws, and to yield to them a steady 
 and a willing obedience. Without undervaluing 
 the pleasures of his animal nature, he tastes the 
 higher, more refined, and more endui'ing delights 
 of his moral and intellectual capacities, and he 
 
46 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 This vantage-ground may be surrendered. 
 
 then calls aloud for education as indispensable to 
 the full enjoyment of his rational powers."* 
 
 These are the grounds on which the advocates 
 of this cause have usually and mainly rested its 
 claims. And they are sufficient to sustain it tri- 
 umphantly against all the assaults of its enemies. 
 But the tendency of education to increase the hap- 
 piness of society, and to elevate man to his proper 
 dignity by causing the intellect and the moral 
 feelings to predominate over the senses, is a van- 
 tage-ground which may be surrendered ; and we 
 may boldly meet the opposers of universal educa- 
 tion on the broad position, that, so far as the ac- 
 quisition of individual and national wealth is con- 
 cerned, it is man's most efficient ally. The only 
 objection that can be urged w^ith any show of 
 reason against the most thorough national educa- 
 tion, is its expensiveness. Now, if it can be 
 shown that such a liberal provision as will secure 
 the benefits of sound instruction to all the people, 
 is a nation's best economy, " we not only" — to 
 borrow the strong language of President Young — 
 " plant our foot on the objection and crush it to 
 atoms, but we construct on its very ruins the 
 strongest argument in behalf of our system — 
 an argument directed to the self-interest of the 
 
 * Combe on Education. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 47 
 
 Universal Education a Pecuniary Gain. 
 
 community — an argument that appeals to one of 
 the ruling passions of our nature, the love of 
 wealth."* 
 
 Can the objection be shown to be groundless 1 
 We meet it with a counter proposition, which, if 
 it can be maintained, necessarily refutes it. Uni- 
 versal education — meaning thereby something 
 more than the mere elements of knowledge — the 
 sound, wise, thorough education of the whole com- 
 munity, so far from being expensive, is actually a 
 gain, even in a pecuniary point of view, to any 
 country where it is enjoyed. 
 
 Let us very briefly look at this position in a few 
 of its various aspects. An undeniable connexion 
 exists between the intelligence of a nation and its 
 laws. There is a general fund of talent and in- 
 formation from which the accomplishments even 
 of statesmen themselves are ultimately derived. 
 Nor is the relation between a nation's legislation 
 
 * The reader will observe that apart of this sentence is quoted 
 from President Young, of Centre College, Ky. It is taken from 
 an address, the object of which is to show that education is a pe- 
 cuniary gain to a country. The author freely acknowledges 
 his indebtedness to this enlightened friend and able advocate of 
 the cause, for some of the topics relied upon under this head, 
 and for several interesting and valuable facts and suggestions ; 
 though these bear but a small proportion to the whole of what he 
 has advanced on this subject. 
 
48 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Its Effect on Legislation. 
 
 and its wealth less significant or obvious. Wise 
 laws, by encouraging industry, quickening inge- 
 nuity, and securing the quiet enjoyment of their 
 fruits, develope the resources of a country, and 
 swell the tide of national prosperity and wealth. 
 These are truths so clear that he that runs may 
 read. They are derived from the plainest princi- 
 ples of reason, and confirmed by the voice of all 
 history. 
 
 Universal education, then, is a pecuniary advan- 
 tage to a nation, in the first place, by its effect on 
 legislation. It would be easy to multiply proofs 
 and illustrations of this most interesting truth. 
 The argument is broad enough to fill a volume. 
 The experience of all ages and nations might be 
 made tributary in the gathering of materials for 
 its construction. Who can calculate the riches 
 often derived to a country from a judicious course 
 of policy in relation to any one important interest, 
 or even from the operation of a single wise law ? 
 In illustration of the former, take those extended 
 systems of internal improvement, which have shed 
 so much lustre on many of our states, and more 
 than doubled their wealth. As an example of the 
 latter, look at the law which secures to the author 
 of any useful invention the pecuniary benefit re- 
 sulting from the sale of the article invented. To 
 what an amazing extent has it stimulated human 
 
HII^TS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 49 
 
 Character of the liaws depends on the Intelligence of the People. 
 
 ingenuity, and urged it on in the career of inven- 
 tion and discovery ! And vi^hat arithnietic can 
 calculate, v^hat scale can measure, the activity 
 and enterprize it has diffused through the commu- 
 nity, the degree in which it has augmented the 
 productive labour of the country, and the untold 
 riches it has in this way poured into the lap of the 
 nation ? 
 
 This branch of the subject may be viewed in 
 another aspect. We may select any period of 
 the world — antiquity, the middle ages, or modern 
 times — and compare the nations then existing 
 with each other. We may compare, for exam- 
 ple, in detail, England with France, France with 
 Spain, Spain with Morocco, and Morocco itself 
 with the kingdoms of interior Africa. We may 
 institute a like process in reference to the same 
 country at different periods of its history; as to 
 Italy, for instance, before and after what is com- 
 monly termed the revival of learning. We may 
 make our search into these matters as broad and 
 as deep as we please; and what will be the result? 
 We shall find, invariably, that those nations where 
 the people have been best educated, have also 
 been most distinguished for the wisdom of their 
 laws, and have enjoyed a greater degree of pros- 
 perity, and reached a higher pitch of wealth than 
 the others. It would be no labour for giants to 
 
 5 
 
50 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Testimony of History on this Point universally in its Favour. 
 
 pile Ossa upon Pelion, and to place them both on 
 the top of Olympus, in the shape of proofs. But 
 to do this would not harmonize with that cha- 
 racter of generality to which the plan I have pro- 
 posed to myself renders it necessary for me to 
 adhere throughout these brief " Hints." I cannot, 
 therefore, now stop to verify the assertion just 
 made ; but I make my appeal with confidence to 
 history. Let my readers search it for themselves; 
 and if they do not find that national prosperity 
 and riches follow in the wake of education, as 
 naturally as water seeks its level, or vapour as- 
 cends toward heaven, then have I read and stu- 
 died in vain, and there is no one conclusion at 
 which I have arrived, that 1 can rely upon with 
 any confidence. But I am not — I cannot be mis- 
 taken. I would say, without hesitation, to any 
 skeptic on this point — Carry your researches in 
 reference to it in whatever direction, and push 
 them to whatever extent you will, the result can- 
 not but be a conviction, not to be shaken by the 
 ingenuity of sophistry or the thunder of declama- 
 tion, that the connection is not more inseparable 
 between light and the sun, between the shadow 
 and its object, than that which exists, and ever 
 must exist, between national prosperity and good 
 laws, and between wise legislation and general 
 intelligence. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 51 
 
 Ignorance in tlit' Ban de la Roche on Oberlin's arrival. 
 
 Not to pass over this point, without one illus- 
 tration of it, I would again call your attention 
 to the scene of Oberlin's labours; a reference 
 which will at the same time illustrate another 
 way in which education is a pecuniary gain, viz. 
 by increasing the capacity of each individual in 
 the community, and enabling him to turn his powers 
 to the best account. That extraordinary man was 
 the patriarch of his people. He was their lawgiver, 
 at least by the force of moral suasion, as well as 
 their pastor, their temporal not less than their spiri- 
 tual guide. Notwithstanding the praise- worthy la- 
 bours of his excellent predecessor, Mr. Stouber, 
 he found them, on his arrival at Waldebach, still 
 sunk almost to the lowest level in the scale of mo- 
 ral and civil existence ; scarcely, indeed, superior 
 to the brutes in any thing but their susceptibi- 
 lity of improvement. 
 
 Their ignorance was such that their very school- 
 masters could scarcely any of them write, and 
 many could not read with fluency ; and as to a 
 knowledge of any thing else, they were nearly as 
 ignorant as so many statues. Some idea of their 
 condition may be formed from the following ex- 
 tract from Professor Halsey's " Memoirs of Ober- 
 lin." " They were alike destitute of the means ol 
 mental and social intercourse ; they spoke a rude 
 patois, resembling the Lorrain dialect, and the 
 medium of no external information; they were 
 
52 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Its Effects. Oberlin's Labours. His Wisdom and Zeal. 
 
 entirely secluded from the neighbouring districts 
 by the want of roads ; the husbandmen were des- 
 titute of the most necessary agricultural imple- 
 ments, and had no means of procuring them ; the 
 provisions derived from the soil were not sufficient 
 to maintain even a scanty population ;" and the 
 soil itself had so far deteriorated by use, and been 
 so often swept away by the rain, from the rocks 
 it covered, that fields that had formerly yielded 
 from 120 to 150 bushels of potatoes, produced, in 
 1767, when Oberlin went to the Ban de la Roche, 
 only from 20 to 50 bushels. These various causes, 
 which, however, may all be traced to ignorance 
 as their fruitful mother, had resulted in a degree 
 of rudeness, indigence, and misery, absolutely ap- 
 palling, and which rendered the task of improving 
 them one of extreme difficulty, and of doubtful 
 issue. 
 
 Nothing, however, could deter this excellent 
 man from attempting their reform. He entered 
 upon his work with the zeal of an apostle, and pro- 
 secuted it with the wisdom of a sage, and the pa- 
 tience of a devotee. He not only instructed them 
 in religion and science, but he taught them agri- 
 culture and the mechanic arts, and indoctrinated 
 them practically in the deepest principles of politi- 
 cal economy; and he had the happiness of be- 
 holding, in the course of a few years, the most 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 53 
 
 Remarkable Change. Great Improvements. Effect un Population. 
 
 remarkable change, wrought through his instru- 
 mentality, that has perhaps ever occurred, in so 
 brief a space, in the condition of an entire people. 
 The rude mountaineers had exchanged their 
 wretched hovels for neat and comfortable cot- 
 tages, and their scanty rags for decent apparel ; 
 their barren rocks had been, by the transporta- 
 tion and deposit of soil upon them, converted 
 into fruitful fields ; manufactures of various kinds 
 had been established ; a small but prosperous com- 
 merce had been commenced; roads, of which, pro- 
 perly speaking, there were none before, had been 
 constructed — schools established and perfected — 
 an Agricultural Society formed, and numerous im- 
 provements in agriculture introduced — and vari- 
 ous institutions founded which mark a somewhat 
 advanced state of Christian civilization ; and in- 
 dustry, contentment, and plenty, smiled through- 
 out the valley, and cheered the abode of every 
 cottager. 
 
 In confirmation of these statements, I ask your 
 attention to the following extract from Professor 
 Halsey's work :— 
 
 " Although on Oberlin's first arrival in the Ban 
 de la Roche," says the biographer, " the popula- 
 tion consisted of eighty or a hundred families only, 
 it increased in the course of a few years to five 
 
 5* 
 
54 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Establishment of Manufactures. Emoluments thence resulting. 
 
 or six hundred, constituting altogether three thou- 
 sand souls. 
 
 " To provide employment for so great a num- 
 ber of persons, even supposing that five hundred 
 could be employed during four or five months in 
 the year in the cultivation of land, and that one 
 third v^^ere infants and infirm persons incapable of 
 w^ork, became a most important object, and gave 
 rise to the introduction of various branches of me- 
 chanical industry, adapted to local circumstances ; 
 such, for instance, as straw-platting, knitting, and 
 dyeing with the plants of the country. The former 
 was introduced by an invalid captain, whose gra- 
 titude for the kind reception he met with, on so- 
 liciting the hospitality of the generous pastor of 
 Waldebach, induced him to profier his services in 
 furthering the views of his benefactor, by instruct- 
 ing the young persons in an art with which neces- 
 sity had previously made him acquainted. 
 
 " Besides these employments, Oberlin had suc- 
 ceeded in introducing the spinning of cotton by 
 the hand ; and, as he gave prizes to the best spin- 
 ners in addition to their wages, this branch of in- 
 dustry for a time succeeded so well that it once 
 gained for the Ban de la Roche, in the course of 
 a single year, and from one manufacturer, the 
 emolument of thirty-two thousand francs — an 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 55 
 
 Mr. Legrand. Silk-Riband Manufactory Established. 
 
 enormous sum, considering the extreme poverty 
 and indigence to which the inhabitants had just 
 before been subjected. Weaving followed, and, 
 notwithstanding numerous obstacles, promised a 
 large increase of pecuniary means ; but, unfortu- 
 nately, the introduction of machinery at Schir- 
 meck and some of the surrounding villages, pro- 
 duced an entire revolution about the time the pre- 
 ceding letter was written, deprived them of this 
 source of maintenance, and seemed likely to re- 
 duce them to their former state of necessity and 
 want. 
 
 "During this emergency, Mr. Legrand, of Basle, 
 formerly one of the Directors of the Helvetic Re- 
 public, attracted to the Ban de la Roche by regard 
 and affection for its pastor, and the simplicity, in- 
 telligence, and integrity of his parishioners, per- 
 suaded his two sons, to whom he had relinquished 
 business, to remove their manufactory of silk ri- 
 bands from the Department of the Upper Rhine 
 to Foudai, believing that its introduction in the 
 Steinthal, by giving employ to a great many 
 hands, would become not only an advantage but 
 a real blessing to the peasantry there, who were 
 at this period sadly in need of work. 
 
 " In the course of a short time, through the ex- 
 ertions of this benevolent and highly respectable 
 
56 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Its Effect on Industry— on Morals. Intellectual Culture. 
 
 family, industry and happiness again smiled in the 
 valley : — for whilst the introduction of the silk 
 manufactory caused trade to be carried on with 
 renewed vigour, and gave employment to several 
 hundred hands, it was attended with another great 
 advantage, too seldom experienced in great manu- 
 facturing districts ; this was that the riband looms 
 were distributed about the houses in the different 
 villages, so that, contrary to the usual custom, the 
 children could remain whilst at work under the 
 eye of their parents, instead of being exposed to 
 the contaminating influence of bad example. 
 
 " ' Conducted by Providence,' says Mr. Le- 
 grand, in a letter addressed to the Baron de Ge- 
 rando, ' into this remote valley, I was the more 
 struck with the sterility of its soil, its straw- 
 thatched cottages, the apparent poverty of its 
 inhabitants, and the simplicity of their fare, from 
 the contrast w^hich these external appearances 
 formed to the cultivated conversation which I 
 enjoyed with almost every individual I met with 
 whilst traversing its five villages, and the frank- 
 ness and naivete of the children, who extended to 
 me their little hands. I had often heard of Pastor 
 OberHn, and eagerly sought his acquaintance. He 
 gave me the most hospitable reception, and antici- 
 pated my desire to know more of the history of 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 57 
 
 Mr. Legrand's Testimony. Triumph of Education. 
 
 the little colony, whose manners had surprised me 
 so greatly, by placing in my hands the annals of 
 his parish. 
 
 " ' It is now four years since I removed here 
 with my family ; and the pleasure of residing in 
 the midst of a people, whose manners are softened 
 and whose minds are enlightened by the instruc- 
 tions which they receive from their earliest in- 
 fancy, more than reconciles us to the privations 
 which we must necessarily experience in a valley 
 separated from the rest of the world by a chain of 
 surrounding mountains.' " 
 
 Behold in the simple annals of that remote val- 
 ley, the triumph of good education ! Contemplate 
 the countless blessings and the sublime hopes it 
 confers upon its possessors; blessings which make 
 up the sum of human happiness below — hopes 
 which stretch beyond the dark and troubled hori- 
 zon that bounds our earthly prospects, and are 
 anchored fast to the Eternal Throne ! Read, 
 moreover, this important lesson — important cer- 
 tainly to the political economist — that it is a pecu- 
 niary, as well as moral gain, to any community 
 where it is enjoyed ! 
 
 Universal education would, in the next place, be 
 a pecuniary gain to the country, by diminishing 
 expensive amusements and checking sensual in- 
 dulgences, I refer here particularly to theatres, 
 
58 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Universal Education would diminish hurtful Amusements and Indulgences. 
 
 circuses, gaming, horse-racing, licentiousness, and 
 intemperance. It must be admitted that we have 
 no means of coming accurately at the facts in re- 
 gard to any of these vices ; and with respect to 
 that which has most p rominently occupied public 
 attention — intemperance — a degree of exaggera- 
 tion and romancing has been indulged in, which 
 has done real injury to the cause it was designed 
 to promote. Nevertheless, it will not be questioned 
 by any reflecting man, that, if we could come at the 
 facts, it would appear that each of these gratifica- 
 tions costs the nation every year its hundreds of 
 thousands of dollars, and some of them many mil- 
 lions; and that, if the whole annual expense to the 
 United States of amusements either frivolous or 
 hurtful, and of indulgences that demoralise and 
 degrade our nature, could be ascertained and 
 held up to public view, the amount would be such 
 as to astound every imagination, and appal every 
 heart. 
 
 Ahhough we cannot fortify our argument by a 
 long array of well digested and well authenticated 
 arithmetical tables, we may mention a single fact, 
 which will furnish ground for a reasonable con- 
 jecture as to the expense of the so called " schools 
 of morality," in the city of New York. An intel- 
 ligent gentleman made the circuit of the theatrical 
 establishments in that city, on an evening of no ex- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 59 
 
 Enormous Expense of Theatres in the City of New York. 
 
 traordinary attractions, and during the severity of 
 the pressure on the money market. He was at 
 some pains to calculate the numbers in attendance, 
 and he came to the conclusion that not less than 
 four thousand five hundred dollars had been re- 
 ceived that night as admission money. At a mo- 
 derate calculation, an additional five hundred dol- 
 lars — probably much more— must have been 
 expended in the purchase of liquors and refresh- 
 ments. If we take this as an average night — and, 
 considering the circumstances, it would seem not 
 unfair to do so— and fix the number of nights on 
 which the theatres are open at two hundred a 
 year, the annual expense, to the city of New York 
 alone, of these seminaries of vice — these recepta- 
 cles and propagators of corruption — these gilded 
 sepulchres filled with the bones of perished virtue 
 and honour, will be one million of dollars; an 
 amount greater by nearly a third than the whole 
 sum paid to common school teachers, in the entire 
 State of New York, in the year 1834. And this is 
 but one item in the long and fearful account. Add 
 to it gaming, horse-racing, impurity, intemperance, 
 and a host of kindred gratifications, and the aggre- 
 gate expense of them in that city alone would, it 
 can scarcely be doubted, exceed in amount all that 
 is expended on common schools in the whole 
 United States. 
 
60 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Education a saving in this respect. Some think otherwise. 
 
 Now I neither say nor think that all the money 
 that is at present thrown away on such objects as 
 these, would be converted to other and better uses 
 by the universal diffusion of education ; neither, on 
 the other hand, can it be reasonably doubted that 
 a great part of it, perhaps nnore than one half, 
 would be saved to the community by the establish- 
 ment and maintenance of good schools — such 
 schools as religion, humanity, and sound policy 
 demand. 
 
 I am aware that there are those who entertain 
 the opinion that education, however thorough or 
 widely diffused, would not tend to diminish amuse- 
 ments, and especially theatres. They appeal in 
 support of this opinion to the history of Rome and 
 the Grecian republics, the most intellectual and 
 highly cultivated nations of ancient times; and 
 yet, say they, the theatre not only existed and 
 flourished among them, but the fondness of the 
 people for theatrical representations amounted to 
 an actual passion. I admit the main facts on 
 which the reasoning of these men is based — viz. 
 the civilization and theatrical taste of the ancient 
 Greeks and Romans ;* but I submit, with all de- 
 
 * In admitting the general civilization, or at least the general 
 education of the Romans, I yield more than could be demanded, 
 and more than is warranted by the facts. The Roman people, 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 61 
 
 The Spirit of Christianity and of Theatres opposite to each other. 
 
 ference, that their reasoning itself is wholly erro- 
 neous. Their conclusion is drawn from a false 
 analogy. I shall have occasion, in the progress 
 of these " Hints," to specify the nature of the edu- 
 cation I would recommend ; but it may be proper 
 here to observe, in passing, that I am firmly of 
 the opinion that no education, not founded on and 
 impregnated with the genuine principles of the 
 Christian religion, would be worth the labour and 
 expense involved in its attainment. And is it pos- 
 sible that any man, who knows whereof he affirms, 
 can maintain that the spirit of Christianity and the 
 spirit of theatres — especially as they are at pre- 
 sent conducted — are in harmony with each other! 
 or that the prevalence of the one would not be the 
 decrease of the other? " Try the spirits whether 
 they be of God ;" — try them by any test that ever 
 occurred to man or angel. The ingenuity of the 
 arch fiend himself would fail to discover, I will 
 not say an identity, but even a sympathy between 
 them. They are as wide asunder, as inconsistent 
 
 properly speaking, were never an educated people. On the con- 
 trary, various decrees of the senate exist, the design of which 
 was to prevent the education of the common people. But I am 
 content to yield this point, as I have done in the text, for the sake 
 of argument, — being persuaded that the position I have taken is 
 a sound one, and that it needs no support from this source. 
 
 6 
 
62 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Proved by a priori reasoning. By the History of the ancient Jews. 
 
 with each other, as antagonistical in their nature, 
 as light and darkness — as virtue and vice — as 
 Christ and BeHal. This, I suppose, will hardly 
 be controverted. The only question which re- 
 mains, then, is, whether a wise Christian educa- 
 tion has a natural tendency to diffuse Christian 
 principles, to strengthen the Christian spirit, and 
 to promote the practice of the Christian virtues. 
 To argue this question in a Christian community 
 would be little less than to trifle with the feelings, 
 or insult the understanding, of its members. To 
 maintain the negative of it would be to contend 
 for a proposition, which, if true, would reverse the 
 order of things, rupture the connexion between 
 cause and effect, and unsettle the foundations of 
 all our knowledge. 
 
 But if, leaving this a 'priori course of reasoning, 
 we would gather up the facts of experience, and 
 draw our inferences from them, no example occurs 
 to me, so fully in point, as that of the ancient Jews. 
 They were the chosen people of Jehovah, the ob- 
 jects of his peculiar care, the witnesses of stupen- 
 dous miracles wrought for their special deliver- 
 ance and preservation, and educated upon prin- 
 ciples of divine inculcation. And how stood the 
 case with them 1 Among all the means appointed 
 by Divine Wisdom for the attainment of a stern 
 and rigorous virtue, the modern " schools of mo- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 63 
 
 The Theatre unknown among the Jews. 
 
 rality" found no place. The theatre was actually 
 unknown among the ancient Israelites. They had 
 their amusements, it is true; and often of a highly 
 exhilarating and cheerful kind. But their very 
 pastimes were tinctured with the spirit of religion, 
 and some of them even were of the nature of 
 religious observances. And we have the autho- 
 rity of divine revelation for affirming that, when 
 Christian education shall have become universal, 
 such will be the grasp and energy of the devo- 
 tional spirit, that it will invest every object and 
 pursuit with an atmosphere of sanctity ; — " every 
 pot in Jerusalem shall be holy, and upon the bells 
 of the horses shall be inscribed, Holiness to the 
 Lord." 
 
 I must apologize to you for the last two para- 
 graphs. They were not originally in the work; 
 and were introduced only after the objection they 
 attempt to meet had been actually urged by an in- 
 telligent and excellent friend, to whom the first 
 copy had been submitted. We will now return 
 to the thread of the argument, as left at the point 
 just indicated. 
 
 It is easy to perceive how education would 
 tend to diminish the amusements and indul- 
 gences specified, and others of a like charac- 
 ter with them. The explanation cannot be bet» 
 
64 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 How Education would diminish improper Amusements and Indulgences. 
 
 ter given than in the words of a late eminent 
 divine.* 
 
 " By multiplying the mental resources, it has a 
 tendency to exalt the character, and in some mea- 
 sure to correct and subdue the taste for gross sen- 
 suality. It enables the possessor to beguile his 
 leisure moments, (and every man has such,) in an 
 innocent at least, if not in a useful manner. The 
 poor man who can read, and who possesses a taste 
 for reading, can find entertainment ai home, with- 
 out being tempted to repair elsewhere for that 
 purpose. His mind can find employment w^hile 
 his body is at rest ; he does not lie prostrate and 
 afloat on the current of incidents, liable to be car- 
 ried whithersoever the impulse of appetite may di- 
 rect. There is in the mind of such a man an in- 
 tellectual spring, urging him to the pursuit of 
 mental good ; and if the minds of his family also 
 are a Httle cultivated, conversation becomes the 
 more interesting, and the sphere of domestic enjoy- 
 ment is enlarged. The calm satisfaction which 
 books afford, puts him into a disposition to relish 
 more exquisitely the tranquil delight inseparable 
 from the indulgence of the social affections. He 
 who is inured to reflection will carry his views be- 
 
 * Robert Hall. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 65 
 
 Amusements of a different kind recommended. 
 
 yond the present hour ; he will extend his prospect 
 a little into futurity, and be disposed to make some 
 provision for his approaching wants ; whence will 
 result an increased motive to industry, together 
 with a care to husband his earnings, and to avoid 
 unnecessary expense. The poor man who has 
 gained a taste for good books, will in all likelihood 
 become thoughtful ; and when you have given to 
 the poor a habit of thinking, you have conferred 
 on them a much greater favour than by the gift of 
 a large sum of money, since you have put them in 
 possession of the principle of all legitimate pros- 
 perity."* 
 
 * Some, there may be, who, drawing their inferences as pre- 
 judice or caprice dictates, rather than upon the principles of 
 right reason, will charge me here with waging an indiscriminate 
 warfare upon all amusements. Such would do me arrant injus- 
 tice. On the contrary, I think that, as a nation, we are deficient 
 in amusements. The gay, tne frivolous, the idle, the vicious, and 
 the worldly, have, it is true, their pastimes of a certain kind, and 
 indulge in them to excess ; but there is a great dearth among us 
 of those rational amusements, which are conducive alike to mo- 
 ral, to intellectual, and to physical health ; and which both the 
 philosopher and the Christian can approve and commend. Mu- 
 sic, that inexhaustible resource for the leisure hours of all classes 
 in Germany and other European countries, if cultivated here, 
 would become, in multitudes of cases, a refuge from ennui, and a 
 safeguard against costly and ruinous gratifications. Parties con- 
 sisting of two or three families might occasionally be found to 
 
 6 * 
 
m HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Amusements indispensable. Ought to be provided for by the Good. 
 
 An adequate system of popular education would, 
 in the third place, diminish the spirit — and, con- 
 
 spend a day in the open fields, where they might enjoy together 
 the exquisite beauties of nature, and partake of the invigorating 
 repast beneath the shade of ancient trees, reclining upon the 
 green velvet of nature's own forming, fanned by the sweet and pure 
 breath of heaven, and lulled and soothed by the mingled music 
 of birds and streamlets. Such parties would partake somewhat 
 of the nature of the feast of tabernacles among the ancient Israel- 
 ites, and of the De Vega excursions of the Spaniards of our own 
 times. They would strengthen the social affections, promote the 
 growth of the social virtues, and impart real instruction, especi- 
 ally to the younger members of the party, while they afforded to 
 all pleasures of the purest, most healthful, and most elevating 
 kind. The young might be usefully amused by visiting manu- 
 factories, inspecting various kinds of machinery, and beholding 
 the endlessly diversified results of human ingenuity. The social 
 circle, the air-balloon, the camera obscura upon a large scale, the 
 more brilliant of the experiments in chemistry and natural phi- 
 losophy, the wonders of the world beneath and the worlds above 
 us, as revealed by the microscope and the telescope, — all these 
 might be made to blend amusement and instruction, and would 
 afford recreations worthy of immortal and accountable beings. 
 Nor am I disposed to deny that the drama itself, if culti- 
 vated, not for purposes of gain, but for the entertainment of 
 select circles of friends and acquaintances, and enacted by ama- 
 teurs instead of professed actors, might be made a source of pure 
 and instructive amusement. 
 
 Amusement of some kind seems indispensable to our nature, 
 and men will have it at any cost, whether of morals or money. 
 And if the friends of order and virtue, the rightful guardians of 
 the public morals, will not provide for this instinctive and irre« 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 67 
 
 Education diminishes Litigation. Promotes Peace and Forbearance. 
 
 sequently, the expense — of litigation. One princi- 
 pal object of education is to teach men their duty, 
 and to supply motives to the performance of it. 
 If this were properly done with respect to dll the 
 youth of our land, if just sentiments with regard 
 to revenge and the forgiveness of injuries were 
 early, and earnestly, and perseveringly inculcated, 
 if that cardinal principle of human intercourse — 
 Do unto others as ye would that they should do 
 unto you — were unfolded to their understanding 
 and impressed upon their heart, by men respected 
 for their learning, and beloved for their virtues, 
 would it not tend to promote those dispositions, so 
 beautifully described by Paul as the " ornaments 
 of a meek and quiet spirit '?" Can it be doubted 
 that the effect of such training would be to 
 strengthen the bonds of universal brotherhood. 
 
 pressible craving of the soul, multitudes of others stand ready to 
 do it, and to make merchandize of the health, the happiness, and 
 the souls of their fellow-men. I am forcibly reminded here of an 
 anecdote I saw a few years ago of an interview between an Ame- 
 rican scholar and a professor in the university of Palermo, in 
 Sicily. The Sicilian inquired of the American what were 
 the pastimes of our literary men ? The latter replied, " They 
 have none." " No wonder then," said the other, " that they lan- 
 guish for a few years in feeble health, and then die prematurely. 
 I could not live without spending two or three hours every day at 
 my piano," 
 
68 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Education saves by diminishing Pauperism and Criminal Prosecutions. 
 
 and thus to diminish the number of lawsuits by 
 preventing the occasions of them'? It would also 
 tend to the same result in a different way. It 
 would make men better acquainted with the prin- 
 ciples of law and justice, increase their confidence 
 in each other's judgment, and cause them more 
 frequently, when disputes did arise, to resort to 
 the less expensive, and often more equitable mode, 
 of settling them by arbitration. 
 
 Again : The thorough education of all the peo- 
 ple would be an annual saving to the nation of 
 many millions of dollars by its tendency to dimi- 
 nish pauperism, and to lessen the number of crimi- 
 nal prosecutions. By whom are our prisons and 
 poor-houses now filled to overflowing? A re- 
 ference to the statistics of crime and poverty will 
 show that it is almost exclusively by those whose 
 intellects have never been enlightened by know^- 
 ledge, and whose hearts lack that moral culture, 
 which good education always bestows. Pour the 
 light of science into the minds of the whole com- 
 munity, and imbue them early with the principles 
 of religion, and more than one-half of those edi- 
 fices which are now devoted to the reception of 
 convicts and paupers, might be either pulled down, 
 or devoted to some purpose, I will not say better, 
 for nothing better can be done while such classes 
 exist among us, but at least to some use, which 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 69 
 
 It would increase the Capacity of each Individual in the Community. 
 
 would not be a perpetual monument of our dege- 
 neracy, and upon whose causes, as well as conse- 
 quences, we could reflect without a sigh or a 
 blush. 
 
 Another way in w^hich universal education 
 would promote the wealth of the country, is by in- 
 creasing the capacity of each individual in the 
 community, by enabling all to turn their powers to 
 the best account, and by adding something to the 
 average duration of human life. The first part 
 of this proposition is very much of the character 
 of an axiom. It is a law of our nature, as well 
 established, and as generally admitted, as any 
 other, that all our capacities, whether of mind or 
 body, are improved by exercise and culture. This 
 law of exercise is of universal application, — ex- 
 tending, as it has been well remarked, from the 
 energy of a muscle, to the highest intellectual and 
 moral faculties. And that he whose powers have 
 been developed by education, whose faculties have 
 been trained by exercise, and whose general capa- 
 city both for planning and executing is thereby 
 and therefore enlarged, can accomplish more in a 
 given time than another who is inferior to him in 
 these respects, is one of those principles which 
 cannot be proved by reasoning, because there are 
 no other principles of more obvious and admitted 
 correctness upon which it can repose. It is a 
 
70 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 It would enable all to turn their Powers to the best Account. 
 
 truth which, when first enunciated, strikes the 
 mind as self-evident ; and which, therefore, admits 
 only that kind of proof, which is termed illustra- 
 tion. It would be an easy task to fill many pages 
 in illustrating this position ; but this would be a 
 waste of time, strength, and paper. Illustration, 
 all-sufficient, must be in the memory of every 
 man of observation. Who does not know, who 
 has not seen, that, in every pursuit of life, those 
 who are most skilful, are also, almost without ex- 
 ception, most successful in amassing wealth ? But 
 he who yields this point, yields the whole argu- 
 ment. Skill, in any business or profession, is no- 
 thing other than that complex result consequent 
 upon the appropriate training of our faculties, the 
 harmonious development of our various animal, 
 mental, and moral powers. 
 
 That an education of all the people, sufficiently 
 comprehensive in its range of studies, and of a 
 proper character in other respects, would have 
 considerable effect in prolonging human life, will 
 not, gentlemen, be questioned by you, nor, I appre- 
 hend, by any one else, after duly weighing exist- 
 ing facts, and the natural operation of cause and 
 effect. It is an undeniable fact, that the average 
 duration of life is far greater in civilized than in 
 savage countries. It is impossible to ascertain 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 71 
 
 It would prolong Human Life. How this Result would follow. 
 
 the exact ratio of duration, owing to the difficulty 
 of obtaining statistics on any subject among bar- 
 barous tribes ; but it is thought by some that civil- 
 ized men live nearly twice as long as savages. 
 What is the fair inference from this remarkable 
 fact? Certainly, that there is some quality in 
 knowledge, the tendency of which is to prolong 
 human existence. What is this quality 1 Is it so 
 subtile as to elude our search, and baffle our efforts 
 to grasp it ? I think not. Unless I am deceived, 
 it will be found in this — viz. — that knowledge, and 
 especially Christian knowledge, forms habits, cre- 
 ates a moral atmosphere, establishes a state of so- 
 ciety, favourable to the result actually occurring. 
 Temperance in all things, cheerful industry, inno- 
 cent recreation, and a quiet conscience, are among 
 the most important conditions of long life. And 
 has it not been alreadv shown, to the satisfaction 
 of all candid persons, that good education tends, 
 directly and powerfully, to produce all these ef- 
 fects 1 But besides this, such education as I could 
 desire to see made universal, would diffuse a gene- 
 ral knowledge of the more direct laws of health ; 
 and this knowledge, though of comparatively 
 little avail while existing only in isolated cases, 
 when communicated to the whole mass of society, 
 and instilled, practically as well as theoretically, 
 
72 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Universal Education would quicken ingenuity, and promote Inventions. 
 
 from early childhood, could not be altogether in- 
 operative.* 
 
 Again : A system of universal and sound edu- 
 cation would tend to quicken ingenuity, and thus 
 to promote those inventions and discoveries, by 
 the application of which to the arts of life the 
 wealth of individuals and of nations is incalcula- 
 bly augmented. Men without education, or with 
 comparatively little, may, by some fortunate acci- 
 dent — as the principle of making glass is said to 
 have been discovered by some Syrian fishermen — 
 or, bv the mere force of orio^inal talent — as Pas- 
 chal, while yet a youth, and before he had even 
 heard of Euclid, actually rediscovered the science 
 of geometry — such persons, I say, may, by possi- 
 bility, stumble upon some undiscovered principle, 
 or strike out some new idea, which may be ap- 
 plied to purposes of great and general utility. But 
 it is impossible that such cases should be of fre- 
 quent occurrence. I hardly remember more than 
 the two already cited as examples; and even as to 
 these, the former is somewhat apocryphal, and 
 
 * The author is happy to have these views confirmed by the 
 opinion of so competent a physiologist as Dr. J. K. Mitchell, of 
 Philadelphia ; — w^ho combines, in an eminent degree, general 
 science and professional merit, with those more elegant accom- 
 plishments which mark the man of letters and the gentleman. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 73 
 
 Knowledge as well as Genius necessary to fit men for inventing. 
 
 it may well be questioned whether the latter is 
 exactly a case in point.* Some previous know- 
 ledge and mental discipline, as well as genius, 
 some acquaintance with the principles of science, 
 are necessary to fit men for originating those cu- 
 rious combinations of thought, and pursuing those 
 felicitous trains of experiment, which penetrate 
 into the secrets of nature and the regions of inven- 
 tion, and bring back those bloodless trophies, 
 which shed a real glory on our race, which exalt 
 our conceptions of the power and dignity of the 
 human mind, and which multiply, beyond expres- 
 sion, our comforts and our gains. 
 
 History, so far as its voice is heard at all on 
 this subject, will fully bear me out in this position. 
 Almost all the valuable discoveries and inventions 
 on record have been made by educated men — 
 self-educated, it may be, and struggling amid ne- 
 glect or contumely, against obstacles insuperable 
 by less resolute minds, till they have brought their 
 labours to a happy termination ; — and those na- 
 tions where the general intellect has been most 
 cultivated, and the light of science most widely dif- 
 
 * Paschal, though he knew nothing of geometry, was far 
 from being uneducated. His father was one of the most emi- 
 nent mathematicians in France, whose house was the constant 
 resort of learned men. 
 
 7 
 
74 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 History confirms this. Comparison between England and France. 
 
 fused, have also been most distinguished for the 
 number of their labour-saving machines, and for 
 their improvements in the various branches of 
 industry, by which v^ealth is accumulated. It is 
 chiefly through the use of machinery that modern 
 nations have been enabled so immeasurably to out- 
 strip those of ancient times in riches ; and it is 
 by the same means that one nation now surpasses 
 another in this respect. 
 
 In illustration of this point, President Young 
 has made a comparison, founded upon the statis- 
 tics of Baron Dupin, between the commercial and 
 manufacturing condition of England and France. 
 From this calculation it appears that the muscular 
 force employed in commerce and manufactures in 
 those two countries is about equal, being in each 
 equivalent, in round numbers, to the power of six 
 millions of men. Thus, if the productive enter- 
 prise of the two countries depended solely upon the 
 animate power employed, France ought to be as 
 great a commercial and manufacturing country as 
 England. But the Enghsh, by means of machi- 
 nery, have increased their force to a power equal 
 to that of twenty-five millions of men, while the 
 French have only raised theirs to that of eleven 
 millions. England, then, owing to her superiority 
 in discovering and inventing, has more than quad- 
 rupled her power of men and horses ; France, on 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 75 
 
 England's Gain over Fiance by her Inventions and Discoveries. 
 
 the other hand, has not quite doubled hers. " Is 
 it," the learned President then pertinently inquires, 
 " is it now any wonder that these islanders, with 
 a narrower territory, smaller population, and less 
 genial climate, should immensely outstrip their 
 less intelligent and ingenious neighbour t And can 
 we conceive a stronger proof of the actual pecu- 
 niary gain, that accrues to a nation from culti- 
 vating the intellect of her sons, than is furnished 
 bv such a fact?" 
 
 Let us look a little into this fact, to ascertain, if 
 possible, how much England gains by her supe- 
 riority in this matter over France. The actual 
 commercial and manufacturing power of the latter 
 country is only two-fifths of that of the former. 
 The present annual value of the cotton manufac- 
 ture in Great Britain, according to the Encyclo- 
 paedia Britannica, is estimated to be about thirty- 
 five miUions of pounds sterling. Three-fifths of 
 that sum, or more than twenty millions of pounds, 
 is England's clear gain over her less skilful rival — 
 an amount more than three times as great as the 
 whole present annual revenue of the United States. 
 And for this vast and ever increasing tide of pros- 
 perity, England is clearly indebted to popular 
 education, which is the parent of intelligence, and 
 the ultimate cause of all those improvements in the 
 cotton manufacture, by w^hich these amazing re- 
 sults have been secured^ 
 
76 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 British Cotton Trade. Middleton's Plan for supplying London with Water. 
 
 There is a striking fact connected with the 
 British East India cotton trade, which illustrates 
 the wonderful superiority, in respect to their com- 
 mand over the elements of wealth, of those nations 
 w^here the common mind is developed and stimu- 
 lated by education. The manufacture of cotton 
 goods was commenced in the East Indies, and for 
 a long time, cotton fabrics were imported from 
 that country into England. Now, however, in 
 consequence of the introduction of machinery into 
 England, and the perfection to which it has been 
 brought, British manufacturers purchase the raw 
 material in India, transport it seven thousand miles 
 by water, pay a heavy duty to the state upon it, 
 convert it into cloth, and then send it back again, 
 and actually undersell the natives'^ in their own 
 market. 
 
 The ingenuity of a single intellect, which might 
 have slept for ever in ignorance and inactivity but 
 for the influence of education, sometimes saves a 
 nation more than it would cost to educate tho- 
 roughly all her sons. About a century ago, Hugh 
 Middleton devised a plan for supplying London 
 with pure water. It is estimated that a supply of 
 
 * The same rude hand-looms are still employed by them in 
 the manufacture of cotton, which were used by their ancestors 
 many centuries ago. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 77 
 
 Iramense Saving by it. Application of Steam to Boats and Cars. 
 
 wholesome water for that metropolis, if furnished 
 by hauling, the method originally in use, would 
 cost nine millions of pounds sterling. By Middle- 
 ton's plan it costs considerably less than half a 
 million. Thus London has, by one invention, 
 been saved an annual expense, in the article of 
 water alone, of more than eight and a half millions 
 of pounds sterling, or about forty millions of dol- 
 lars. This sum is more than enough to maintain 
 good schools in the whole of England, Scotland, 
 and Ireland. 
 
 Education, such as it exists at present among 
 us, has already, by the inventions and discoveries 
 of which it has been the source, increased the 
 riches of this nation to an extent incalculably be- 
 yond all that the best system would have cost us. 
 The application of steam to the propulsion of boats 
 and railroad-cars, is alone more than sufficient to 
 justify this remark. " It has already done more 
 for every state in this union than all the power of 
 industry, working by the old methods, could have 
 effected for it in a hundred years. It has filled 
 our houses with the productions of every country 
 and climate, and has raised the price of every 
 acre of our land, and almost every article of our 
 produce." These are its direct consequences : 
 but it has produced collateral effects, scarcely less 
 
 auspicious to the prosperity and riches of the 
 
 7* 
 
78 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 The Cotton Cultivator. Card-making Machine. Cotton Gin. 
 
 country, in the powerful impulse it has given to 
 commerce, manufactures, agriculture, and all 
 other branches of industry, by which men seek to 
 create or to augment their fortunes. 
 
 But the advantages of the application of steam 
 to these purposes, great as they are, scarcely bear 
 a proportion to the aggregate of benefits derived 
 from innumerable other inventions and discoveries. 
 An instrument, called the cotton cultivator, has re- 
 cently been invented, for thinning and weeding 
 cotton, which, it is estimated, will perform the 
 work of twenty men. I cannot, for want of the 
 necessary data, which are not accessible to me 
 where I write, enter into statements to show how 
 much labour and expense are annually saved to 
 the United States by Whittimore's card-making 
 machine, and Whitney's cotton gin; but the amount 
 must be immense. Who can tell how much is 
 saved to the husbandman, and the extent to which 
 his gains are increased, by the use of the pa- 
 tent rake, and of the reaping and threshing ma- 
 chines, and by the invention and improvement 
 of various other instruments for facilitating his 
 labours ? 
 
 We cannot, however, descend to particulars. 
 The ingenuity of our countrymen has been direct- 
 ed, and often with the most gratifying results, to 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 7^ 
 
 Various other Inventions. Their Eifect on National Prosperity. 
 
 the invention of power-multiplying* machines, in 
 every branch of human industry. A mere cata- 
 logue of the patents granted by the United States 
 would fill several volumes. And to what are we 
 indebted for this vast mass of labour-saving ma- 
 chinery, this multitude that can scarcely be num- 
 bered, of instruments for the accumulation of 
 w^ealth ? I reply unhesitatingly, — To the develop- 
 ment of the popular mind by education. 
 
 But the intellect of this people is not cultivated 
 to one fourth — scarcely, perhaps, to one eighth — 
 the extent that it would be by the adoption of a 
 wise system of universal education. And who can 
 calculate the results, — what imagination can set 
 limits to the pecuniary advantages that would ac- 
 crue to the country, if useful inventions and disco- 
 veries were multiplied fourfold ? What multitudes, 
 it has been well asked, would then benefit society 
 by their ingenuity, who now curse it with their 
 vices'? How many Franklins, and Fultons, and 
 Rittenhouses would rise up to bless the world, if 
 
 * I employ this word according to popular usage. I am well 
 aware that it is not scientifically correct. There is really no such 
 thing in art as an increased result, without a corresponding in- 
 crease in the producing power. All that the most complex and 
 ingenious machinery can do, is to concentrate power, to change 
 its direction, or in some way to modify its action. 
 
80 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Governor Everett's beautiful Eulogium on the Time-Piece. 
 
 the beams of knowledge were poured upon every 
 mind, to kindle the flame of slumbering genius ! 
 But if the education of all the children of a state 
 for centuries raised up only one such discoverer 
 as Fulton, or Watt, or Arkwright, without yield- 
 ing another advantage, the country would be im- 
 mensely a gainer by the outlay.* 
 
 * I introduce in this place, partly because it serves as a measure 
 to enforce my own argument, but more on account of its great 
 beauty of style and thought, the following extract from Governor 
 Everett's Address before the Massachusetts Charitable Associa- 
 tion, descriptive of the value of that ingenious little instrument, 
 which marks the progress of time. " Consider," says he, " the 
 influence on the affairs of men, in all their relations, of the in- 
 vention of the little machine which I hold in my hand, and the 
 other modern instrument for the measurement of time, various 
 specimens of which are on exhibition in the halls. To say no- 
 thing of the importance of an accurate measurement of time in 
 astronomical observations, nothing of the application of time- 
 keepers to the purposes of navigation— how vast must be the ag- 
 gregate effect on the affairs of life, throughout the civilized 
 world ; and, in the progress of ages, of a convenient and porta- 
 ble apparatus for measuring the lapse of time ! Who can calcu- 
 late in how many of those critical junctures when the affairs of 
 weightiest import hang upon the issue of an hour, prudence and 
 forecast have triumphed over blind casualty, by being enabled to 
 measure with precision the flight of time, in its smallest subdi- 
 visions ! 
 
 " Is it not something more than mere mechanism, which 
 watches with us by the sick bed of some dear friend, through the 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 81 
 
 Education increases our Command over the Products of Nature. 
 
 Finally, on this branch of the argument, the dif- 
 fusion of sound and suitable education among all 
 the members of a community, would enable them 
 to push their researches to an indefinite extent into 
 the powers and productions of physical nature, to 
 subject these mighty agents to their will, and to 
 render them subservient to the purposes of gain. 
 Here are two distinct and prolific sources or 
 instruments of wealth — the powers of nature and 
 
 livelong solitude of night, enabling us to count, in the slackening 
 pulse, Nature's trembling steps towards recovery, and to admi- 
 nister the prescribed remedy at the precise, perhaps the critical 
 moment of its application ! By means of a watch, punctuality in 
 all his duties, which in its perfection is one of the incommunica- 
 ble attributes of Deity, is brought, in no mean measure, within 
 the reach of man. He is enabled, if he will be guided by this, 
 to imitate that sublime precision which led the earth, after a 
 circuit of five hundred millions of miles, back to the solstice at the 
 appointed moment without the loss of one second, no, not the mil- 
 lionth part of a second, for the ages on ages during which it has 
 travelled that road. What a miracle of art, that a man can teach 
 a few brass wheels, and a little piece of elastic steel, to outcalcu- 
 late himself; to give him a rational answer to one of the most 
 important questions which a being travelling towards eternity can 
 ask ! What a miracle that a man can put within this little machine 
 a spirit that measures the flight of time with greater accuracy 
 than the unassisted intellect of the profoundest philosopher; 
 which watches and moves when sleep palsies alike the hand of 
 the maker and the mind of the contriver, nay, when the last 
 sleep has come over them both," 
 
82 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Man encompassed with a vast Assemblage of Powers. 
 
 the productions of nature — over each of which the 
 best educated, whether individuals or nations, have 
 the greatest comnnand, and can niost readily and 
 effectually turn them to account in the pursuit of 
 riches. The connexion here specified, viz. be- 
 tween education and the ability to make nature 
 herself the minister of wealth, if not received 
 exactly as an axiom, will, I suppose, be gene- 
 rally acknowledged as a truth already suffi- 
 ciently established by experience. All that is ne- 
 cessary, then, to our present purpose is to give a 
 few exemplifications of the value of this power, in 
 other words, the extent to which it may be applied 
 for promoting the end supposed ; — to place, as it 
 were, an occasional buoy, indicating the channel 
 through which the thoughts and investigations of 
 those must flow who would come to a full under- 
 standing of the pecuniary benefits to be derived 
 from this source. 
 
 If we look around us to ascertain our true posi- 
 tion and circumstances, we shall find ourselves 
 encompassed with a vast assemblage of powers,* 
 which all bear some relation to the human intel- 
 ligence, and many of which are susceptible of 
 
 * And there are doubtless many others still hid in the womb 
 of nature, which science will yet bring to light, and art apply to 
 beneficial ends. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 83 
 
 All those Powers related to the Human Intelligence. The Loadstone. 
 
 being, in some way and to some extent, controlled 
 and converted to our use, by art and skill. There 
 is a mysterious power in the earth, which draws 
 the loadstone always towards the same point. The 
 discovery of this power, and the application of it 
 to the construction of the magnetic needle and the 
 mariner's compass, have made the ocean the 
 highway of nations — the ocean, that liquid plain 
 without line or landmark, which stretches over half 
 the globe, and which suffers the mightiest ships to 
 cut their way through its waters without leaving 
 the least traces of their progress. Had not the 
 intelligence of man — an intelligence, be it always 
 remembered, drawn forth by education — made 
 this secret influence subservient to his purposes, 
 what would now be the state of commerce ; what 
 the condition of this mighty continent; what our 
 knowledge of remote countries ; what the civiliza- 
 tion of the w^orld ?* It would require a volume, 
 nay, almost a library, to develope in detail all the 
 effects, having either a direct or a remote relation 
 to the acquisition of wealth, of this wonderful 
 
 * How, indeed, without it, could the gospel be carried to the 
 " uttermost parts of the earth ?" and the last command of a suf- 
 fering Saviour be fulfilled ? But I did not introduce this con- 
 sideration into the text, because it is not pertinent to the argu- 
 ment in hand. 
 
84 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Gravitation. Expansive Povi^er of Heat — Application to Business of Life. 
 
 principle, and the instruments which have been 
 invented to render it available for human use. 
 
 There is another mysterious power in the earth, 
 which causes all bodies on or near its surface to 
 tend towards the centre. It is this principle which 
 makes water seek its level, and descend in 
 streams from more elevated regions towards the 
 ocean. But educated intelligence enables man to 
 stay the torrent in its course, to turn it from its 
 channel, to appropriate its moving force, and thus 
 to make it grind his corn, manufacture his cloth, 
 print his books, forge his iron, spin his thread, and 
 perform many other useful and profitable ser- 
 vices. 
 
 There is a hidden influence or power, in heat, 
 which causes almost all known substances to ex- 
 pand, and liquids in the process of expansion to 
 assume the gaseous form. To what endless uses, 
 in the business of life, has not civilized and edu- 
 cated man applied this simple principle ? He has 
 employed it to measure the state of the atmosphere, 
 to blast the rocks with which he rears his cities, 
 to move the " floating palace" through the water, 
 to send the richly freighted car careering through 
 the air, to give intensity to his destructive ener- 
 gies in the wars he wages with his enemies, and 
 to set machinery of all kinds and for all purposes 
 in motion. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 85 
 
 Knowledge is truly Power. Man's Interest lies in Knowing. 
 
 " The wind bloweth where it listeth," and no 
 human power can change its direction. But can 
 man do nothing with it 1 Yes; he can and does. 
 He spreads his canvass to the gale, catches a por- 
 tion of the moving element, and traverses by its 
 aid the broadest oceans for purposes of traffic and 
 of gain. 
 
 *' In such a state of things," as Mr. Combe well 
 remarks, " knowledge is truly power; and it is ob- 
 viously the interest of human beings to become 
 acquainted with the constitution and relations of 
 every object around them, that they may dis- 
 cover its capabilities of ministering to their advan- 
 tage. Farther,— where these physical energies 
 are too great to be controlled, man has received 
 intelligence, by which he may observe their 
 course, and accommodate his conduct to their 
 influence. This capacity of adaptation is a 
 valuable substitute for the power of regulating 
 them by his will. Man cannot arrest the sun in 
 its course, so as to avert the wintry storm and 
 cause perpetual spring to bloom around him ; but, 
 by the proper exercise of his intelligence and cor- 
 poreal energies, he is able to foresee the approach 
 of bleak skies and rude winds, and to place him- 
 self in safety from their injurious effects. These 
 powers of controlling nature, and of accommo- 
 dating his conduct to its course, are the direct re- 
 
86 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Knowledge of the Prndiictinns of Nature advantageous. 
 
 suits of his rational faculties ; and in proportion 
 to their cultivation is his sway extended. If the 
 rain fall, and the wind blow, and the ocean bil- 
 lows lash against the nnere animal, it must endure 
 them all ; because it cannot control their action, 
 nor protect itself by art from their powder. Man, 
 while ignorant, continues in a condition almost 
 equally helpless. But let him put forth his proper 
 human capacities, [and cultivate the faculties with 
 which his Creator has endowed him,] and he then 
 finds himself invested with the power to rear, to 
 build, to fabricate, and to store up provisions; and, 
 by availing himself of these resources, and accom- 
 modating his conduct to the course of nature's 
 laws," he is able not only to obtain a competency, 
 but to amass wealth, and may " smile in safety be- 
 side the cheerful hearth, when the elements main- 
 tain their fiercest war abroad." 
 
 A well educated community does not possess a 
 less striking advantage over an ignorant one in 
 their knowledge of the 'productions of nature, their 
 ability to increase this knowledge indefinitely, and 
 their power of making it tell on the public pros- 
 perity. This position is susceptible of interesting 
 and forcible illustration from the geological surveys 
 recently made, or now in progress, in several of 
 the states of this union. Who, till then, had formed 
 any conception of the varied and inexhaustible 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 87 
 
 Geological Surveys. Mineral Wealth. Monmouth County. 
 
 mineral resources of this country ? And who now 
 can tell the yet undiscovered riches embowelled in 
 our mountains, or sleeping undisturbed, because 
 unknown, beneath the surface of our valleys? It 
 is but a few years since that Monmouth county, 
 in New^- Jersey, was one of the poorest counties in 
 the state. The real estate there is now worth 
 more than in any other county in our common- 
 wealth. Whence this change 1 It is owing solely 
 to the discovery and use of marl by the farmers. 
 Lands in that county worth, five years ago, no 
 more than from five to ten dollars an acre, are 
 now valued at a hundred dollars; and the farmers 
 who own them are all making fortunes. 
 
 But more space has already been devoted to 
 this division of these " Hints" than was originally 
 intended ; and I forbear pursuing the train of 
 thought suggested by this topic. You will, how- 
 ever, I trust, excuse one illustration of the point 
 under consideration. It is taken from the history 
 of the Ban de la Roche, which has already been 
 repeatedly referred to as full of excellent and 
 various instruction. Before Oberlin went to that 
 district, its inhabitants had subsisted almost en- 
 tirely on a sort of wild potatoes, which their 
 exhausted soil produced in very scanty quantities. 
 Oberlin, having a thorough knowledge of botany, 
 instructed his people in the properties of their 
 
88 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Illustrated by Oberlin"s People. 
 
 indigenous plants. Among them were the stripe- 
 flowered cabbage; common chickweed; water 
 mouse-eared chickweed; common goose-foot; 
 common dandelion; mountain willow-herb; but- 
 ter-cup; yellow dead nettle; white dead nettle; 
 common hop; red phnpernel; great plaintain; 
 upright crow-foot ; twisted snake-weed ; common 
 sorrel ; lamb's lettuce ; bladder campion ; water 
 cress ; and corn cockle. These common plants, 
 which they had trodden under foot from genera- 
 tion to generation, without dreaming that they 
 were of any value, they now learned to use in a 
 variety of ways to increase their comforts and 
 add to their meaps of living. 
 
 These are mere specimens of the various ways 
 in which an acquaintance with the powers and 
 productions of nature may contribute to the acqui- 
 sition of wealth. They are not given as a full, or 
 scarcely a partial, illustration of the subject ; but 
 they may serve as a starting point to the reader's 
 own reflections, and as landmarks to indicate the 
 track which his investigations must take in order to 
 a full and just appreciation of the pecuniary advan- 
 tages which may accrue to a nation from this 
 source. 
 
 The connexion of sound popular education with 
 the purity and perpetuity of its political institu- 
 tions, was the third consideration suggested as 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 89 
 
 Solemn Trust Committed to our Citizens. Influence of our Example. 
 
 showing that it is the duty of a free state to make 
 adequate legal provision for the instruction of all 
 her children. The discussion of this topic will 
 now claim your attention; but only for a very 
 brief space. 
 
 To the citizens of the United States is com- 
 mitted the solemn charge of perpetuating that 
 liberty, and of maintaining those institutions, civil, 
 social, literary, and religious, which it cost our 
 fathers so much blood and treasure to establish ; — 
 institutions, which are at once the pride of our 
 own country and the hope of the world. Yes — 
 and I say it in no spirit of vain-glorious boasting, 
 but with a deep impression of the responsibihty 
 which our position involves— we stand upon an 
 eminence such as few nations have ever occupied. 
 We are as a city set on a hill, whose light cannot 
 be hid. The eyes of the world are upon us, — one 
 portion regarding us with anxious but trembling 
 hope, the other with a fiendish desire to see our 
 fair prospects blasted, our honour prostrate in the 
 dust, and our greatness and very existence among 
 the things that w^ere. Be assured, be assured, that 
 our fall will be the triumph of despotism, and the 
 knell of liberty throughout the world. The same 
 pile of ruins in which our constitution lies en- 
 tombed, will cover the ardent hopes and cherished 
 expectations of the friends of freedom every where, 
 
 8^ 
 
90 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Our Political Fabric endangered by the Facility with which Foreigners Vote, 
 
 To maintain our free institutions, then, and to 
 transmit them unimpaired to posterity, is no light 
 trust, to be committed to rash hands and rasher 
 heads. It is pregnant with the fate of empires. 
 In its issue, are involved, for ages to come, the 
 happiness or misery of a large portion of the 
 civilized world. It is a trust most solemn in its 
 nature, and the due execution of which demands, 
 in every citizen, knowledge and judgment, as well 
 as patriotism and vigilance. 
 
 It is not to be disguised that our political fabric 
 is encompassed with dangers, and that there are 
 elements of destruction at work among us, which, 
 if left to operate without check or control, will ere 
 long cause it to totter to its fall. I speak not this as 
 a politician. The dangers to which I allude spring 
 from our circumstances. They are inherent in our 
 political organization as a nation, and our moral 
 constitution as men. They would therefore exist, 
 whatever party might chance to have the ascend- 
 ancy for the time being. These dangers are nu- 
 merous and multiform ; but the two whose influ- 
 ence is most to be dreaded are, in my opinion, the 
 facility with which foreigners are admitted to vote 
 at our elections, and the loss of a proper inde- 
 pendence of judgment and action in our own peo- 
 ple, and a consequent susceptibility of being sway- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. Ql 
 
 And by the Want of a Proper Independence in our own People. 
 
 ed to their own hurt by artful, selfish, and unprin- 
 cipled party leaders. 
 
 Let me here guard against misapprehension and 
 misconstruction. We have had, and still have, many 
 naturalized citizens, whose talents and virtues are 
 an ornament to our country ; men of enlightened 
 views and ardent patriotism ; men sound to the core 
 in their political and moral principles, and forward 
 in every patriotic enterprise; men, in short, whose 
 pubhc services are a part of our national glory, 
 and who are justly regarded as among the pil- 
 lars of the state. It is not of such that I speak. 
 I refer to that overflowing tide of immigration 
 w^hich disgorges upon our shores its annual thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands of Europe's most de- 
 graded population ; men without knowledge, with- 
 out virtue, without patriotism, and with nothing to 
 lose in the issue of any election. Are these per- 
 sons fit depositories of political power? Have 
 they any of that attachment to our institutions, 
 and that knowledge of our form of government, 
 which are essential to its safe exercise ? Surely, 
 either the honesty or the intelligence of the man 
 who could maintain such a position, might well 
 be questioned. There is danger, there must be 
 danger, impending over us from this source, as 
 well as from the other. 
 
 Now what is the remed}'^ for each? The pro- 
 
92 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Education the only remedy. Universal suffrage— a blessing or a curse. 
 
 per remedy against the first mentioned of these 
 dangers, would be a change in our naturalization 
 laws ; but such a change can scarcely be anti- 
 cipated. The only practicable antidote to this, 
 the only effectual safe-guard against the other, the 
 only sure palladium of our liberties, is in so tho- 
 rough an education of all our own citizens as shall 
 nullify foreign influence, so far as it is dangerous, 
 and secure real personal independence in the na- 
 tives of the soil. Our very freedom will prove our 
 bane, unless the people, the original source of all 
 power, are so far enlightened as to be able to 
 exercise the various functions of power aright. 
 Universal suffrage, like many other things in 
 this contradictor}^ world, is either a blessing or 
 a curse, according to circumstances. It is a 
 blessing to a nation whose citizens use it with in- 
 telligence ; it would be a curse to any people so far 
 w^anting in that attribute as to allow themselves 
 to be made mere tools in the hands of ambitious 
 demagogues. It is possible that a nation may be well 
 governed, where the body of the people are igno- 
 rant; but it must be a government in which the 
 people have no voice. Russia is governed with 
 ability, but what imagination can paint the horrid 
 scenes that would ensue upon the sudden introduc- 
 tion there of the right of universal suffrage ? 
 Freedom under such circumstances would be the 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 93 
 
 Intelligence and Virtue our only Safeguard. 
 
 most terrible of cUrses. It would become an in- 
 strument of destruction, to be dreaded in propor- 
 tion to the degree in which it was possessed. No, 
 the ability to reflect, examine, and judge, and the 
 possession of elevated virtue, each attainable for 
 the most part only through the instrumentality of 
 education, are essential to the safe enjoyment and 
 useful exercise of the privileges of freemen. It is 
 a truth which we all acknowledge, but which we 
 do not lay to heart as we ought, that intelligence 
 and virtue are the bulwarks of a free government, 
 that education is the parent of all true personal 
 independence, and that in proportion to our intel- 
 lectual and moral illumination will be our chances 
 of surviving, in the vigour of perpetual manhood, 
 the operation of those causes which have under- 
 mined all preceding republics, and which are al- 
 ready at work for our ruin. And let it not be for- 
 gotten that the importance of education is increas- 
 ing every year in proportion to the vast influx of 
 foreign voters, the increase of our native popula- 
 tion, and the expansion of our people over a wider 
 territory. 
 
 The strength and permanency even of the Ce- 
 lestial Empire, strange as it may seem, depend 
 upon her literary institutions and her various edu- 
 cational establishments. Behold the testimony of 
 a recent intelligent traveller on this point. 
 
94 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 The Chinese Empire dependent on her Literary Institutions for Strength. 
 
 " The Literary Institutions of China," says Mr. 
 Roberts, in his embassy to the Eastern Courts 
 of Cochin China, Siam, and Muscat, " are the 
 pillars that give stability to the governnnent. Her 
 military forces are utterly inadequate to hold to- 
 gether the numerous extensive provinces and ter- 
 ritories, that constitute the wide dominions of the 
 reigning dynasty. With great difficulty the Tar- 
 tar troops overrun the country ; conquering pro- 
 vince after province, and gradually extending their 
 authority over the territories on the west of China 
 Proper. But for a long period both the discipline 
 and the energies of the Chinese soldiery have been 
 on the wane: and at this moment the imperial 
 hosts present nothing formidable but their numeri- 
 cal amount; the recent insurrections at Leen-chow 
 and Formosa, have afforded the most complete 
 evidence of this imbecility. Not only in this part 
 of the empire, but along the whole coast up to the 
 great wall on the north, and even beyond that in 
 Mantchou Tartary, both the land and naval forces 
 have become so exceedingly enervated and disso- 
 lute, that they exercise no salutary influence or 
 control, except over a few, who are equally de- 
 based with themselves. As police-men, in the ca- 
 pacity of lictors, thief-takers, and executioners, 
 they are not less detested than feared by the com- 
 mon people ; they are in fact, for all purposes of 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 95 
 
 Learning indispensable to those who aspire to Places of Authority. 
 
 defence, little better than dead men; were they 
 stricken from the catalosjne of the living, we can 
 scarcely doubt that the stability of the empire 
 would remain unimpaired. 
 
 " There are many who look with astonishment 
 at the magnitude of this empire, and believe it 
 strong and immovable as the everlasting hills. 
 But an examination of its history and present 
 organization, would show them that it has been 
 frequently rent and broken by rebel chieftains, 
 ambitious statesmen, and haughty kings; and that 
 its present greatness is chiefly attributable to its 
 peculiar literary institutions. These, though they 
 are the glory and strength of the nation, are, ex- 
 cept for mere purposes of government, amazingly 
 deficient ; and it is their relative, rather than intrin- 
 sic value, that renders them worthy of special 
 notice. Wealth and patronage have great influ- 
 ence here ; they often control the acts of govern- 
 ment, stay the course of justice, cover the guilty, 
 and confer honours and emoluments on the unde- 
 serving. But as a general rule, learning, while it 
 is an indispensable prerequisite for all those who 
 aspire to places of trust and authority in the state, 
 is sure to command respect, influence, and dis- 
 tinction. 
 
 " Thus, without the dreadful alternative of over- 
 throwing the powers that be, a way is opened to 
 
96 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 The most distinguished Statesmen rise to Eminence by Intellectual Effort. 
 
 ambitious youth, by which he may reach the 
 highest station in the empire; the throne only 
 excepted. Usually the most distinguished states- 
 men are those who have risen to eminence by 
 intellectual efforts : they are at once the philoso- 
 phers, the teachers, and rulers of the land. These 
 distinctions they cannot however maintain, with- 
 out yielding implicit obedience to the will of the 
 monarch, which is most absolute and uncontrolled. 
 Let them honour and obey the power that is over 
 them, and they stand ; dependant indeed on the 
 one hand, but on the other, in proud and envied 
 distinction. 
 
 " High rank in the state is the brightest glory 
 to which this people aspire ; with them, learning 
 derives its chief value from the simple fact, that 
 it brings them within the reach of that dazzling 
 prize. Strict examinations, regulated by a fixed 
 code of laws, have been instituted and designed 
 solely to elicit from the body of the community 
 the " true talent" of the people, with the ulterior 
 intention of applying it to purposes of government. 
 At these examinations, which are open to all ex- 
 cept menial servants, lictors, players, and priests, 
 it is determined who shall rise to distinction and 
 shed glory on their ancestors and posterity — who 
 shall Hve on in obscurity and die and be forgotten. 
 The competitors of the Olympic games never en- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 97 
 
 Lord Bacon's celebrated Aphorism forcibly illustrated. 
 
 tered the arena before the assembled thousands of 
 their countrynaen, with deeper enaotion than that 
 which agitates the bosonns of those who contest 
 the palm of these literary combats. The days on 
 which they are held, and their results published in 
 Canton, are the proudest which its inhabitants ever 
 witness." 
 
 How true is the celebrated aphorism of Lord 
 Bacon, that " knowledge is power!" It has been 
 so in all ages and in every clime. It is a mighty 
 instrument either for good or for evil. What a 
 noble incentive this to labour for its acquisition ! 
 and how fearful the responsibility which the pos- 
 session of it involves ! 
 
 The Chinese government, the purest form of 
 despotism on earth, the slow growth of uncounted 
 ages, is upheld, and its vigour perpetuated, by 
 Educatiok. How forcible the argument thence 
 derivable in favour of this exalted and exalting 
 quality ! And if it has force as applicable to such 
 a country as China, it applies, as the logicians 
 say, a fortiori, to civil institutions based, as ours 
 are, on the principles of freedom and equality, 
 and depending, confessedly, on the intelligence 
 and virtue of the people for their security and 
 vigour. 
 
 Now to sum up. It has been shown, I would 
 fain trust conclusively, that the prevalence of good 
 
 9 
 
98 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Summing up of the Argument. Necessity of Popular Education. 
 
 and thorough systems of popular education in the 
 several members of our confederacy, would exalt 
 the character of our citizens, and greatly augment 
 their happiness in their civil, domestic, and indi- 
 vidual relations ; that every new degree of excel- 
 lence in our primary schools, and every successive 
 approach towards perfection in the system of edu- 
 cation and universality in the enjoyment of its 
 benefits, would add millions to the wealth of the 
 nation where it abstracted only thousands; and 
 that such education is inseparably connected with 
 the right discharge of our duties as freemen, 
 with the perpetuity of our glorious constitution, 
 and with the progress of liberal principles and free 
 institutions throughout the world. 
 
 These considerations must establish, if any thing 
 can, the great, the paramount, the overshadowing 
 importance, nay, the absolute necessity, of general 
 education in a country like ours, and consequently 
 the duty of the states to make adequate provision 
 for it, and then to watch that the means adopted 
 for that purpose be faithfully employed. For, it 
 would be a position scarcely worthy of serious 
 refutation, it would be in contradiction to all the 
 lights of experience and observation, it would 
 be little better than trifling, to contend that educa- 
 tion can become universal and thorough, in a 
 country where the government manifests no solici- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 99 
 
 Duty of Government in this Matter. Bulwer'g opinion. 
 
 tude in its behalf, and puts fortii no exertions to 
 promote it.* 
 
 * Mr. Bulwer, in his work on England and the EngUsh, ar- 
 gues forcibly in support of this position. He says: — "Never 
 was this truth more clearly displayed than in the state of our 
 popular education. Behold our numberless charities sown 
 through the land. Where is their fruit ? What better meant, 
 or what more abused ? In no country has the education of the 
 poor been more largely endowed by individuals — it fails — and 
 why ? — Because in no country has it been less regarded by 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT." 
 
100 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 BRANCHES OF STUDY PROPER FOR COMMON 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 Preliminary Inquiry into the Nature and Object of Education — 
 This Term, in its broadest sense, comprehends all the Influ- 
 ences which act upon Man— These Influences ranged by Fos- 
 ter under five Heads — A Sixth added — Education produces 
 two classes of Effects — Important in both Aspects, and why — > 
 Object of Education — Complex Nature of Man must be consi- 
 dered — His Relations must be understood — These Relations 
 pointed out — His Destination — His Relations and Destina- 
 tion indicate the Education suited to his Nature — Education 
 should be such as to develope our Powers, communicate useful 
 Knowledge, and form the Disposition and the Habit of Virtue 
 ■ — A System of Popular Education should prescribe a Course 
 of Study — Text-Books prescribed by Law in Saxe Weimar — • 
 Analytical Description of them — Course of Study enjoined by 
 Law upon the Primary Schools of Prussia — The Prussian sys- 
 tem decried in an Article in the first Number of the Democra- 
 tic Review — Sophistry of the Argument, and Illiberality of 
 the Attack — Our Common Schools compared with those of 
 Saxe Weimar and Prussia—Their Inferiority — Limited Course 
 of Studies — Superficial Nature of the Instructions given — In- 
 difference of Parents — A Fundamental Reform necessary — 
 List of Studies should be extended — Instruction should be 
 made more thorough — Enumeration of Branches proper to be 
 introduced into Common Schools — Objection to the Course re^ 
 commended " that it would consume too much time," answer- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 101 
 
 Education comprehends every Influence that modifies Character. 
 
 ed — The Author's Views confirmed by the Course of Study re- 
 commended by Dick — Necessity of Moral and Religious In- 
 struction insisted upon more at large — Religious Education 
 the Foundation of all good Character — Essential to the full 
 Advantage of Intellectual Education — Objection to the Intro- 
 duction of Religious Instruction into Popular Schools — Not 
 founded in Reason — Government owes Christianity a heavy 
 Debt, and is bound, as far as possible, to discharge it — The 
 awakening of Sectarian Jealousies apprehended — Method by 
 which these are allayed in Prussia — Can it not be done in this 
 Country ? — Weight of Authority in favour of Religious In- 
 struction in Schools — Opinions of Simpson, Bulwer, Cousin, 
 and Dick, on this Question — The objection to Universal Edu- 
 cation, " that it would raise the Labouring Classes above their 
 Sphere," considered and answered — Objection to the Plan re- 
 commended founded on the Principle " that each Parent ought 
 to educate his own Children" — This Objection based on Sel- 
 fishness — A just Comprehension of the Selfish Principle itself 
 refutes it. 
 
 Having established this point, let us, in the next 
 place, inquire what branches of study it would be 
 proper and desirable to introduce into a system of 
 common school instruction. Preliminary to this, 
 however, a brief inquiry into the nature and object 
 of education may not be out of place. 
 
 What, then, is education ? And what the main 
 object it ought to aim to accomplish ? 
 
 Education, in its broadest meaning, compre- 
 hends all those influences, of whatever kind, and 
 in whatsoever manner exerted, which go to form 
 
 9* 
 
102 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 These Influences classified. Education produces two Classes of Effects. 
 
 or to modify human character. Foster has ranged 
 these influences under five divisions, which include 
 at least the most important of them : — viz. direct 
 instruction, reading, companionship, the scenes of 
 nature, and the state of society. He might perhaps 
 have added, as the source of a distinct class of in- 
 fluences, though in some sense included in his clas- 
 sification, parental authority, and those powerful 
 home associations, which exert an enduring effect 
 on the characters of most men, which occasion- 
 ally stay the uplifted hand of the hardened sinner, 
 and prevent the accompKshment of some deed of 
 meditated villany, and which sometimes even re- 
 store to the bosom of domestic love, and to the 
 hope of a life to come, the wandering prodigal, 
 who had wasted his substance in riotous living, or 
 been driven from society for his flagitious prac- 
 tices. 
 
 In this sense the whole of life is but a long course 
 of education ; and the church edifice, the hall of 
 legislation, the popular assembly, the theatre, the 
 race-course, the bar-room, the very streets of our 
 cities, are as really places of education, as the 
 school-room or the college. 
 
 This complex training produces two classes of 
 effects : it developes the physical, moral, and in- 
 tellectual powers of man ; and it forms and ma- 
 tures his habits. Viewed in either aspect, it is im- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 103 
 
 Impossible to overrate its Importance. Why. 
 
 possible to overrate its importance. But why im- 
 possible ? If man were like the brute that obeys 
 his superior intelligence, born to consume the 
 fruits of the earth, to flutter through his brief hour 
 of life, and then to disappear entirely from the 
 scene of existence, to undergo a complete absorp' 
 tion, an utter annihilation of his powers of enjoy- 
 ment and of suffering, sarcasm might exhaust its 
 powers of ridicule without doing justice to the fol- 
 ly of toiling for that which we call education. 
 " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," 
 would then be a maxim embodying the very quint- 
 essence of wisdom ; an aphorism worthy of a So- 
 crates, or a Seneca. No ; it is the nature and the 
 relations of man, his immortality, and his accoun- 
 tability alone, which render his education an affair 
 of the smallest moment, and these make it a thing 
 not merely of considerable, but of incalculable 
 magnitude. Eternity, to borrow in part an idea 
 of Robert Hall's, invests every thing in any way 
 connected with it, with a mysterious and awful 
 importance, entirely its own, and is the only pro- 
 perty in the creation which gives that weight and 
 moment to whatever it attaches, compared with 
 which all interests which know a period, fade in^ 
 to the most contemptible insignificance. 
 
 These remarks lead us naturally to the second 
 branch of our present inquiry, viz. the object of 
 
104 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Object of Education. Complex Nature of Man considered. 
 
 education. In considering the subject in this re- 
 lation, it is evident that we must exclude from our 
 thoughts, or at least embrace only incidentally, 
 all those classes of influences enumerated above, 
 except one, — that is, those arising from direct in- 
 struction. 
 
 Man is a being extremely complex in the 
 structure of his mind and body, and having nume- 
 rous relations both to other beings of the same 
 species, and to different orders of the creation. 
 Considered in the former of these respects, he pos- 
 sesses various powders, susceptible of a high degree 
 of enlargement and cultivation, but liable at the 
 same time to numberless disorders, to temporary 
 suspensions of their activity, to positive perversion 
 of their uses, and some of them to final extinction. 
 Considered in the latter respect, he is bound by a 
 variety of obligations, corresponding to, or rather 
 arising from, the relations in which he stands to 
 other beings. Considered in both respects — in 
 reference to his whole being — he has duties of high 
 significance to perform; a destiny of momentous 
 import to fulfil; a race to run, in which immortality 
 is the prize. The legitimate object of education, 
 and the real one, when it is not misdirected by 
 folly, or perverted by wickedness to frivolous or 
 sinister ends, is to place man in a condition in 
 which he may most fully answer these high pur- 
 
HINTS OF POPULAR EDUCATION. 105 
 
 Education fits Man to answer the ends of his Creation. 
 
 poses of his creation ; where he may most readily 
 fall in with, and most effectually help forward, the 
 Divine intention concerning him. 
 
 Now, in order to accomplish this, three condi- 
 tions are necessary ; — his powers must be deve- 
 loped, his mind stored with knowledge, and his 
 habits formed to industry and virtue. This is^ob- 
 vious; but it does not yet appear what exactly 
 ought to be the character of the developement, the 
 know^ledge, and the habits referred to. In order 
 to determine this question, his powers, his relations, 
 and his destination must be understood. The first 
 mentioned of these properties belong to the depart- 
 ment of the physiologist and the metaphysician, 
 the second to that of the moral philosopher, and 
 the third to that of the minister of religion ; but all 
 fall fairly within the province of the educationist. 
 The first, however, we shall pass by as not parti- 
 cularly pertinent to our present aim. Let us 
 briefly inquire into the two latter. 
 
 What are the most important of those relations 
 which man, as a rational and moral creature, sus- 
 tains to other beings'? First in the order of time, 
 and most momentous in their consequences, are 
 those in which he stands to the Creator, as his off- 
 spring, his beneficiary, his revolted subject, and 
 that new relation of gracious fellowship and son- 
 ship created by the stupendous phenomenon of 
 
106 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Man's Relations explained. His Immortal Destination. 
 
 mediatorial and redeeming love. Next come his 
 complex and multiplied relations to his fellow man, 
 embracing those which he bears to the great bro- 
 therhood of humanity, the country to which he 
 owes allegience, the neighbourhood which is the 
 sphere of his more immediate influence, and the 
 domestic circle of which he forms a part, either as 
 head or member ; each class of relations involving 
 a distinct class of obligations, and the whole com- 
 prehending a range of duties, differing indeed in 
 importance, but none of them unimportant, and, 
 in the aggregate, demanding unwearied diligence 
 and the utmost exertion of his powers. Then fol- 
 low his relations to the inferior orders of animated 
 existence, and to the powers and productions of 
 inanimate nature. These do not perhaps impose 
 any positive duties upon him, except that of treat- 
 ing with humanity all that has life ; but — and this 
 is a consideration of far greater consequence — 
 they are capable, if rightly understood, of render- 
 ing him most essential aid in the performance of 
 his other duties. 
 
 What is the destination of man ? It is needless 
 to waste words in replying to this question. True, 
 the immortality of the soul may be demonstrated 
 by the naked powers of reason, and even the doc- 
 trine of a future retribution strongly inferred from 
 facts and principles within our reach, apart froi^ 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 107 
 
 Developement of his Powers. Attainment of Knowledge. Habits. 
 
 any communication from Heaven. But Divine 
 Revelation has saved us the necessity of doing 
 this. On its every page Immortality and Judg- 
 ment TO COME stand out in letters of light. It 
 teaches us further that this world is a place of 
 trial and training for the next, and that our cha- 
 racters here will determine our destiny there. 
 
 Are not these views pertinent to our present 
 inquiry ? Do they not throw light upon the point 
 under consideration ? Do they not, in fact, clearly 
 point out and define the object which education 
 ought to propose to accomplish 'I — viz. such a de- 
 velopement of our powers, animal and rational, 
 the attainment of such and so much knowledge, 
 and the formation of such habits, as far as circum- 
 stances will permit, as will fit us to discharge most 
 successfully and usefully the various duties which 
 our relations impose upon us. In other words, 
 and more specifically, the object of education is, 
 or should be, to make man reflective, moral, pru- 
 dent, healthy, industrious, skilful in business, inde- 
 pendent in feeling, and truly religious. 
 
 A state has not done all its duty in regard to 
 education, when it has established schools and 
 made provision for their support ; nor even when 
 it has provided good teachers and established an 
 organization that ensures a faithful discharge of 
 duty in the various functionaries employed. No 
 
108 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Course of Study should be prescribed. First Class-book in Saxe Weimar. 
 
 system of popular education can be considered as 
 at all perfect, which does not prescribe, I do not 
 say, the particular books to be used, or the speci- 
 fic methods of instruction, but at least some gene- 
 ral outline of the course of study to be pursued — 
 the branches of knowledge to be communicated. 
 This is done in those European states, where the 
 instruction of the people is made an affair of go- 
 vernment. In the Grand Duchy of Saxe Weimar, 
 even the class-books are prescribed, the same be- 
 ing used in all the primary schools throughout the 
 realm. Permit me to call your attention to these 
 books. They are four in number, and of the fol- 
 lowing purport : — 
 
 The first class-book is destined for the youngest 
 children ; it contains, in regular gradations, the 
 composition of syllables, punctuation, elementary 
 formation of language, simple stories, sentences or 
 proverbs of one verse or upwards, diverse selec- 
 tions, sketches, &c. " The sentences," says Mr. 
 Cousin, " struck me particularly ; they contain, in 
 the most agreeable shapes, the most valuable les- 
 sons, which the author classes under systematic 
 titles, such as, our duties to ourselves, our duties 
 to men, our duties to God, and the knowledge of 
 his divine attributes, — so that, in the germ of lite- 
 rature, the infant receives also the germ of morals 
 and of religion." 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 109 
 
 The Second and Third Class-Books in Saxe Weimar. 
 
 The second book, for the use of children from 
 eight to ten, is not composed merely of amusing 
 sketches, — the author touches upon matters of ge- 
 neral utility. He proceeds on the just idea that 
 the knowledge of the faculties of the soul ought a 
 little to precede the more profound explanations 
 of religion : under the head of dialogue between 
 a father and his children, the book treats, first, of 
 man and his physical qualities ; secondly, of the 
 nature of the soul and of its faculties, with some 
 notions of our powers of progressive improvement 
 and our heritage of immortality ; and, thirdly, it 
 contains the earliest and simplest elements of na- 
 tural history, botany, mineralogy, &c. 
 
 The third work contains two parts, each divided 
 into two chapters. The first part is an examina- 
 tion of man as a rational animal, — it involves these 
 questions : What am I ? What am I able to do ? 
 What ought I to do t It teaches the distinction be- 
 tween men and brutes, instinct and reason ; it 
 endeavours to render the great moral foundations 
 of truth clear and simple, by familiar images and 
 the most intelligible terms. 
 
 As the first chapter of this portion exercises the 
 more reflective faculties, so the second does not 
 neglect the more acute, and comprises songs, 
 enigmas, fables, aphorisms, &c. 
 
 The second part of the third work contains, 
 
 10 
 
110 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 The Fourth. Elementary Schools of Prussia. 
 
 first, the elements of natural history, in all its sub- 
 divisions, notions of geography, of the natural 
 rights of man, of his civil rights ; w^ith some les- 
 sons of general history* An appendix comprises 
 the geography and especial history of Saxe Wei- 
 mar. 
 
 The fourth book, not adapted solely for Saxe 
 Weimar, is in great request throughout all Ger- 
 many. It addresses itself to the more advanced 
 pupils. It resembles, a little, the work last de- 
 scribed, but is more extensive on some points. It 
 is equally various, but it treats in especial more 
 minutely on the rights and duties of subjects; it 
 proceeds to conduct the boy, already made ra- 
 tional as a being, to his duties as a citizen. 
 
 Such are the four class-books in the popular 
 schools of Saxe Weimar. Such is the foundation 
 of that united, intellectual, and lofty spirit which 
 marks the subjects of that principality.* 
 
 In Prussia, a country which exhibits the extra- 
 ordinary spectacle of a despotic government and 
 fhe most paternal anxiety, as well as the wisest 
 plan, for the education of all the people, the popu- 
 lar schools are divided into two classes, — termed 
 elementary schools, and burgher schools. The 
 
 * SeeBulwer's England and the English, Book II., Chap. 3. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. m 
 
 Course of Study traced out and enjoined by Law. 
 
 text-books in these schools are not prescribed, but 
 the course of study is traced out and enjoined 
 by law. 
 
 The law thus summarily sets forth the object of 
 tlie national education, and the branches of knovv^- 
 ledge it must include : — " To develope the faculties 
 of the soul, the reason, the senses, and the physical 
 frame. It shall embrace religion and morals, the 
 knowledge of size and numbers, of nature and of 
 man, the exercises of the body, vocal music, draw- 
 ing, and writing." It then goes on in detail as 
 follows : — 
 
 Every elementary school includes necessarily 
 the following objects : 
 
 Religious instruction for the formation of mo- 
 rality, according to the positive truths of Chris- 
 tianity, 
 
 The language of the country. 
 
 The elements of geometry and the general prin- 
 ciples of drawing. 
 
 Practical arithmetic. 
 
 The elements of physical philosophy, of geo- 
 graphy, of general history ; but especially the his- 
 tory of the pupil's own country. These branches 
 of knowledge to be taught and retaught as often 
 as possible, by the opportunities afforded in learn- 
 ing to read and write, independently of the parti- 
 cular and special lessons given upon those subjects. 
 
112 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Burgher Schools. Studies pursued in them. 
 
 The art of song — to develope the voice of chil- 
 dren, to elevate their minds, and to improve and 
 ennoble both popular and sacred melodies. 
 
 Writing and the gymnastic exercises, which 
 fortify all our senses, especially that of sight. 
 
 The more simple of the manual arts, and some 
 instructions upon manual labour. 
 
 In the burgher schools, are taught, conform- 
 ably to the provisions of the law, the following 
 branches : 
 
 Religion and morals. 
 
 The national tongue; reading, composition, ex 
 ercises of style and of the invention ; the study of 
 the national classics. 
 
 Latin is taught to all children, under certain 
 limitations, in order to exercise their understand- 
 ings ; even whether or not they are destined to 
 advance to the higher schools, or to proceed, at 
 once, to their professions or trades. 
 
 The elements of mathematics, and an accurate 
 and searching study of practical arithmetic. 
 
 Physical philosophy, so far as the more import- 
 ant phenomena of nature are concerned. 
 
 Geography and history combined, so as to give 
 the pupil a knowledge of the divisions of the earth, 
 and of the history of the world. Prussia, its his- 
 tory, laws, and constitution, shall be the object of 
 especial study. 
 
 -< 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 113 
 
 This Education given by Prussia to all her Children. 
 
 The principles of drawing, at all occasions. 
 
 Writing, singing, and gynnnastic exercises. 
 
 " Such," says the author of England and the 
 English, " is the programme of the education of 
 elementary schools in Prussia ; an education that 
 exercises the reason, enlightens the morals, forti- 
 fies the body, and founds the disposition to labour 
 and independence. This is the education given 
 by Prussia to all her children. Observe, here is no 
 theory — no programme of untried experiments: 
 this is the actual education, actually given, and 
 actually received. It is computed that thirteen 
 out of fifteen children, from the age of seven to 
 that of fourteen, are at the public schools; the 
 remaining two are probably at the private schools, 
 or educated at home ; so that the ivhole are edu- 
 cated — and thus educated ! Observe, this is no 
 small and petty state, easily managed and con- 
 trolled; it is a country that spreads over large 
 tracts, various tribes, different languages, multi- 
 form religions : the energy of good government 
 has conquered all these difficulties. But what, 
 Sir,* you will admire in the Prussian system, is 
 not the laws of education only, but the spirit that 
 framed and pervades the laws — the full apprecia- 
 
 * Dr. Chalmers is the gentleman here addressed, 
 10* 
 
114 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Prussian System of Education decried in tiie Democratic Review. 
 
 tion of the dignity and objects of men — of the 
 duties of citizens — of the powers, and equality, 
 and inheritance of the human soul. And yet in 
 that country the people are said to be less free 
 than in ours ! — how immeasurably more the peo- 
 ple are regarded P^ 
 
 There is an article in the first number of a 
 literary journal, recently established at the City 
 of Washington, in which the Prussian system is 
 attacked and decried as in no respect suited to this 
 country, because, forsooth, Prussia is a monarchy! 
 If the w-riter of said article means by this that it is 
 not adapted to our use, because it teaches the laws 
 and constitution of Prussia, so far I agree with 
 him ; but if he means that the great principle which 
 is recognised as the basis of the system — viz. the 
 necessity of a thorough education of all the people 
 — and the wisdom and liberality with which that 
 principle is carried out in its application, are at 
 war either with our interests or our institutions, 
 then, gentlemen, your own good sense shall be my 
 only argument to refute him. I forbear to cha- 
 racterise his sophistry in the terms which it richly 
 merits. Seme good things can come out of Na- 
 zareth. Let us not be guilty of the flagrant illi- 
 berality of refusing to applaud and to imitate what 
 is intrinsically excellent, because it happens to have 
 originated with monarchists instead of republicans, 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 115 
 
 Inferiority of our Schools. Buhver's Account of English Schools. 
 
 and to exist on the southern coast of the Baltic in- 
 stead of the western shores of the Atlantic ocean. 
 
 How poor and meager, in comparison with the 
 education which Prussia and Saxe Weimar give 
 to all their children, is that afforded by the gene- 
 rality of our common schools ! Bulwer's descrip- 
 tion of the state of things in the elementary schools 
 of England, is much more applicable to ours. — 
 " Generally," says he, *' throughout the primary 
 schools, nothing is taught but a little spelling, a 
 very little reading, still less writing, the catechism, 
 the Lord's prayer, and an unexplained, uneluci- 
 dated chapter or two in the Bible ; add to these 
 the nasal mastery of a hymn, and an undecided 
 conquest over the rule of Addition, and you behold 
 a very finished education of the poor." 
 
 I would not indulge in sarcasm, or be unjust, on 
 such a subject as this. Even were I so disposed 
 myself (which I am not), I am sure such a course 
 would not meet with your approbation. I am free 
 to admit, therefore, that this would not be a fair 
 picture of our popular schools. Nevertheless, 
 what do these institutions actually accomplish in 
 the way of disciplining the powers of their pupils, 
 and imparting knowledge? It would scarcely be 
 unfair to say that, in a large proportion of them, the 
 faculty of observation and comparison is not de- 
 veloped, nor the art of reflection taught, at all. And 
 
116 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 List of Studies pursued in our Schools. Wherein deficient. 
 
 as to the knowledge they communicate, reading, 
 spelling, writing, arithmetic, geography, and gram- 
 mar, form generally the entire catalogue of studies 
 in their courses of instruction. In reference to 
 many of them even this list must be abridged, and in 
 respect to still more, the branches enumerated are 
 both imperfectly taught, and pursued to a very in- 
 considerable extent. The dignity of man, the 
 powers of the human soul, the education of the 
 senses, our rights and duties as men and citizens, 
 and the works of the Creator by which we are 
 surrounded, are subjects w^hich, as you well know, 
 are never dreamed of in the philosophy of most of 
 our primary schoolmasters. The masters them- 
 selves are for the most part ignorant on these 
 points, and multitudes of parents w^ould oppose 
 their introduction into school as branches of study. 
 I have even heard of a father who objected to his 
 children learning geography, on the sage ground 
 thfit he did not learn it himself, and had never felt 
 the want of it! Yet, notwithstanding all this, we 
 are apt to think and speak of our common schools 
 as superior to those of all other countries; and 
 even Mr. Dick has been imposed upon by our 
 boastings, and assigns us the first place in this 
 respect, in his work on the Mental Illumination 
 and Moral Improvement of Mankind. The state- 
 ments made a little above, respecting the schools of 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. in 
 
 Our good Opinion of ourselves. It is a flattering Delusion. 
 
 Saxe Weimar and Prussia, must convince all, who 
 are not steeled against conviction, that this opinion 
 is but a flattering delusion, the offspring of an un- 
 founded and overweening self-complacency.* 
 
 * The following view is given by Mr. Simpson of the " edu- 
 cation of the humble classes" in England and Scotland. With 
 some abatements, it is applicable to a large portion of the schools 
 in this country. I give the extract, for the soundness of its doc- 
 trines, beseeching all to read and ponder it thoroughly : — " But 
 we come to the question, what is the nature of the education of 
 the humbler classes which is extending in England, and has been 
 so long established in Scotland? Is it of a kind to impart useful 
 practical knowledge for resource in life — does it communicate to 
 the pupil any light upon the important subject of his own nature 
 and place in creation, — on the conditions of his physical welfare, 
 and his intellectual and moral happiness ; — does it, above all, 
 make an attempt to regulate his passions, and train and exercise 
 his moral feelings, to prevent his prejudices, suspicions, envying, 
 self-conceit, vanity, impracticability, destructiveness, cruelty, and 
 sensuality ? Alas ! No. It teaches him to read, write, and 
 CIPHER, and leaves him to pick up all the rest as he may ! It 
 forms an instructive example of the sedative effect of established 
 habits of thinking, that our ancestors and ourselves have so con- 
 tentedly held Tins to be education, or the shadow of it, for any 
 rank of society ! Reading, writing, and ciphering, are mere in- 
 struments ; when attained, as they rarely or never are, after all, 
 by the working class to a reasonable perfection, they leave the 
 pupil exactly in the situation where he would find himself, were 
 we to put tools into his hands, the use of which, however, he must 
 learn as he may. We know well that he will be much more 
 prone to misapply his tools, and to cut himself with them, than 
 to use them aright. So it is with his reading; for really any 
 
118 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Necessity of a radical Reform of our Common Schools. 
 
 There is need of a fundamental reform of our 
 common schools with respect to the branches 
 
 writing and accounting of this class, even the most respectable 
 of them, scarcely deserve the name, and may be here put out of 
 the account. Reading consists in the recognition of printed 
 characters arranged into syllables and words. With this most 
 abstract accomplishment may coexist unregulated propensities, 
 selfish passions, sensual appetites, filthy and intemperate habits, 
 profound intellectual darkness and moral debasement, all adher- 
 ing to a man as closely after as before he could read ; and, be it 
 remarked, these qualities will give their bias to his future volun- 
 tary reading, and assuredly degrade and vitiate its character ; it 
 will tend to strengthen his prejudices, deepen his superstitions, 
 flatter his passions, and excite his animal appetites. Well is all 
 this known to the agitator, the quack, and the corrupter. They 
 know that the manual-labourer can read ; but they knove, as well, 
 that he is incapable of thinking, or detecting their impositions, 
 if they only flatter his passions. No just views of life have ever 
 been given him, no practical knowledge of his actual position in 
 the social system. We are always told that the majority of 
 criminals cannot read, as if the [mere faculty of reading would 
 have diminished the number of criminals. This is a great de- 
 lusion. For the reasons I have stated, mere reading might have 
 increased the number of criminals, it would be quite ineff^ective 
 in diminishing them. But if the investigation Iiad gone the 
 length of ascertaining with which of the criminals had an at- 
 tempt at moral training and useful knowledge ever been made, 
 w^e should have found that column of the table a blank, and 
 something like cause and eflTect would begin to dawn upon us. 
 It is needless to pursue so obvious a matter further. If a na- 
 tional system of education is to stop at reading, writing, and 
 ciphering, it would save much trouble and after disappointment 
 not to attempt ii at all." 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. Hg 
 
 List of Studies should be enlarged. Instruction made more thorough. 
 
 taught in them. The list of studies should include 
 many now entirely omitted, and those already 
 embraced in it ought to be pursued far beyond 
 what they are at present. The right which, as 
 American citizens, we most value, is the elective 
 franchise ; but how can this right be usefully ex- 
 ercised, unless those Vv'ho enjoy it possess some 
 knowledge of general history, and especially of 
 the history and constitution of their own country ? 
 But this knowledge, if possessed at all, must, as a 
 general thing, be acquired at school; at least the 
 foundation of it must be laid there. But not only 
 should all the youth of our land learn so much of 
 the history of other times and nations, and of the 
 history, constitution, and laws of their own coun- 
 try, as will enable them to exercise the right of 
 suffrage wisely; they ought also to form some 
 acquaintance with the manifold and wonderful 
 works of the Creator. The elements of natural 
 history, botany, mineralogy, chemistry, anatomy, 
 physiology, and physical philosophy, when taught 
 with sensible illustrations and appropriate experi- 
 ments, are all perfectly level to the understanding 
 of children, and admirably adapted to develope 
 their faculties of observation and reason, to excite 
 a thirst for knowledge, to form them to habits of 
 reflection, and to awaken in their souls, ere yet 
 the well-springs of life have been poisoned, those 
 
120 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Enumeration of Studies. Christian Religion indispensable. 
 
 sentiments of piety, which are the brightest or- 
 nament, as they are the sweetest consolation, 
 of our degenerate nature. Vocal music, draw- 
 ing, public and domestic economy, agriculture, 
 and some of the manual arts, ought severally 
 to receive their share of attention from the pu- 
 pils. The girls ought to have specific instruc- 
 tions given them, adapted to prepare them for 
 their peculiar duties as wives and mothers. To 
 all this should be added some elementary know- 
 ledge of the powers and susceptibihties of their 
 own minds, especially of their power of progres- 
 sive improvement in knowledge and goodness ; 
 some instruction on the true relations of their na- 
 ture, and the duties originating in them ; and some 
 general notion of the evidences on which the truth 
 of that religion rests, around which cling their 
 hopes of immortality. And religion itself — not the 
 peculiar dogmas of some favourite sect — but the 
 pure, ennobling, life-giving principle of Christiani- 
 ty, as set forth in the teachings and lives of Christ 
 and his Apostles, and recorded in the New Testa- 
 ment, must form the body and the spirit, the cen- 
 tre and the circumference, the beginning, the mid- 
 dle, and the end of every wise system of popular 
 education. 
 
 It would swell this volume to a size altogether 
 beyond my intentions, to enter into a full analysis of 
 these various branches of knowledge, a lengthen- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 121 
 
 Objection to this view of what Popular Education ought to be answered. 
 
 ed explanation of their importance to every human 
 being, and a laboured defence of them as applica- 
 ble to the use and purposes of common schools. 
 The author believes, hov^^ever, that it vi^ould not 
 be difficult to present such an exposition of these 
 matters as would convince all candid men of the 
 soundness of his opinions respecting the course of 
 study appropriate for popular seminaries. 
 
 It may be objected to the view here given of 
 what the education of the people ought to be, that 
 it would require too much of the pupil's time. The 
 objection is not without a show of reason, but it 
 will hardly bear examination. It must be borne 
 in mind, first, that, in order to carry these views 
 into effect, a body of well trained and experienced 
 teachers will be necessary, and that more can be 
 learned in one year under a good instructor, than 
 in three or four with a poor one ; secondly, that, 
 by the expulsion of ill-judged books of extracts, 
 and the substitution of books prepared upon more 
 philosophical principles, several of these branches 
 might be taught in part incidentally, while the pu- 
 pil was learning to read ; and, thirdly, that it is no 
 part of the plan to make of the labouring classes 
 statesmen, theologians, or philosophers, but simply 
 to lay the foundation, in sound elementary know- 
 ledge, of a superstructure afterwards to be reared, 
 suited to the conditions of our being, in harmony 
 
 11 
 
122 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 These views not visionary nor impracticable. 
 
 with the divine purpose, and worthy of the end for 
 which we were created. Besides, Gentlemen, shall 
 it be said that the children of freemen, to every 
 one of whom the highest honours of his country 
 are open, cannot devote as much time to the culti- 
 vation of their minds and to preparation for the du- 
 ties of life, as the children of despotic govern- 
 ments ? Away with such a plea ! It is a foul 
 calumny on our institutions. But 1 would be will- 
 ing to compromise for a course of common school 
 instruction, as comprehensive as that of Prussia or 
 Saxe Weimar. 
 
 Some persons, whose notions of the appropriate 
 studies of common schools are more or less affect- 
 ed by their present low and imperfect standard, 
 may be surprised at the extent of the course here 
 recommended, and may charge me with entertain- 
 ing visionary and impracticable views. To such 
 I shall appear as one that dreams, or like the child, 
 who, with mimic industry, constructs his house of 
 blocks for the idle pleasure of seeing it fall in 
 pieces again. I do not fear any such feeling as 
 this on your part, but for the satisfaction of these 
 persons, and to show them that wiser and better 
 men dream in the same way, I ask their attention 
 to the branches of learning recommended by Dick, 
 who has written much and well on education, as 
 proper to be introduced into all popular schools ; 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 123 
 
 Course of Studies recommended by Mr, Dick for Common Schools. 
 
 some of them, however, of course, only in their 
 elementary principles. They are English reading, 
 writing, and composition; drawing, arithmetic, 
 grammar, geography, geology, astronomy, expe- 
 rimental philosophy and chemistry, mathematics, 
 physiology, the art of reasoning, natural theology, 
 natural history, vocal music, public and domestic 
 economy, morahty and religion.* Those who 
 would see these studies defended at length, and 
 their adaptation to the purposes of general educa- 
 tion shown, are referred to the sixth and seventh 
 chapters of the Mental Illumination and Moral 
 Improvement of Mankind. For myself, I am firm- 
 ly persuaded that, until something like the course 
 of study I have traced out shall be generally adopt- 
 ed, or at least, until their senses, their reflective 
 powders, and their moral feelings shall be educated, 
 in the proper sense of the term, our hardy yeoman- 
 ry, the bone and sinew of the land, will never reach 
 that mental and moral elevation which every hu- 
 man being ought to obtain, and which is, in an es- 
 
 * Permit me, Gentlemen, to call your attention to a remarkable 
 omission here, whether it is the result of accident or design. 
 Civil history is not so much as alluded to in this enumeration. 
 Mr. Dick could not have intended to exclude it altogether. I in- 
 cline to the opinion that it is a mere oversight, though certainly 
 ^. very extraordinary one. 
 
124 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Necessity of introducing Religious Instruction into all Schools. 
 
 pecial manner, demanded by their peculiar rela- 
 tions to our free civil institutions. 
 
 I have expressed the opinion, a very sincere 
 one on my part, that no system of popular educa- 
 tion can be deemed perfect, or adequate to the 
 wants of a free state, which does not prescribe 
 and render obligatory the course of studies to be 
 pursued in the schools which it calls into being. 
 You will have observed also that I have strenu- 
 ously urged the necessity of introducing religious 
 instruction into schools, and making the study 
 of Christian duties a part of the prescribed course. 
 
 All experience demonstrates that the tem'poral 
 w^ell-being of individuals, as of nations, is by no 
 means secured by a great intellectual developement 
 and a refined civilization. The true honour of an 
 individual, as of a people, depends on a severe 
 morality, on self-control, on humility and modera- 
 tion, and on the voluntary performance of all his 
 duties towards God and towards his fellow-crea- 
 tures. Religious and moral education is conse- 
 quently the first want of the people. When this 
 is deficient, all other education is often not only 
 without real advantage, but it is in some respects 
 even dangerous.* If, on the other hand, a good 
 
 * " The Duke of Wharton ; Wilmot, Earl of Rochester ; 
 Villers, Duke of Buckingham; and Mirabeau, were in their 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 125 
 
 Religion a necessary foundation of good Character. 
 
 foundation of character has been laid in religious 
 education, intellectual education will then be of 
 the greatest advantage ; and it ought the less to 
 be withheld from the people, inasmuch as the 
 Creator has given them the faculty and the dispo- 
 sition to acquire it, and the developement of all the 
 powers of man puts him in possession of the means 
 of arriving at the highest degree of perfection, and 
 consequently of securing the greatest amount of 
 happiness, attainable in his present state. 
 
 These views will not be contested. There is an 
 almost perfect unanimity of opinion on the great 
 importance, in the abstract, of cultivating the mo- 
 ral feelings and forming the disposition and the 
 habits to virtue, which can be effectually done 
 only by making the positive truths and precepts 
 of Christianity the basis of the instructions im- 
 parted. Nevertheless, there is a real difficulty, 
 and one of no small magnitude, in this question. 
 
 days distinguished by wit, and taste, and learning-, and know- 
 ledg-e; and they were not less distinguished by extravagance, 
 revelry, lawless passions, and disregard of moral and social 
 virtue. High attainments are tremendous engines for the work- 
 ing out of good or evil. If not directed by correct and safe 
 principles, they are terrible weapons of ill. The educated rogue 
 or infidel is but the more dangerous man." — Mr. Southard's 
 Address before the Literary Societies of the College of New 
 Jersey. 
 
 11* 
 
126 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Objections to religious Instruction— Church and State— Sectarianism. 
 
 Multitudes, who admit to the full the correctness 
 of the above theory, and many of them men of 
 personal piety, start back and stand aghast at the 
 bare idea of making religion a necessary part of 
 school instruction. They ring the changes on 
 church and state, sectarianism, and such like cant 
 words and phrases, till they persuade themselves 
 and others, that there is real force in what they 
 say. And truly there would be force in it, if the 
 dangers which they imagine, had any foundation 
 in fact. But I cannot help thinking that there is 
 a morbid feehng in many minds on this subject, 
 which causes them to magnify mole-hills into 
 mountains, and to look at every object connected 
 with it through a colouring medium. 
 
 Many wdll tell us that the religious education of 
 children is a matter which ought to be left entirely 
 to parents and to the clerical profession. Do they 
 reflect that, in that case, there are numbers who 
 would receive no instruction at all, or next to 
 none, on the most momentous concern that can 
 engage their attention ? Do they know that there 
 actually are thousands in this deplorable condition? 
 The ignorance of religious truth that prevails in 
 this country is amazing. I have myself seen and 
 conversed with adults, in the bosom of a Christian 
 community, who knew little more than heathen of 
 the simplest doctrines of the Christian religion. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 127 
 
 Government benefited by Christianity— Ought to repay the Debt. 
 
 But, they urge, it is at least an affair with which 
 Government has nothing to do. If by this be 
 meant only that Government has no right to dic- 
 tate the religious opinions of the community, then 
 we have no controversy ; but if it be meant to as- 
 sert that Government has no right to require that 
 the great principles of moral duty, principles which 
 in fact lie at the foundation of civil liberty, shall 
 be taught to the children of the state, then 1 dissent 
 in toio from the opinion. What is Government 
 that she thus frees herself from obligation ? Has 
 she received nothing herself? Has she not 
 on her part been incalculably benefited by Chris- 
 tianity? Has not her authority been thereby 
 enforced, her sanctions confirmed, her title to re- 
 spect vindicated, her principles purified, and her 
 powers of blessing enlarged ? And is she now to 
 turn round upon Christianity, and say to her, — I 
 can do nothing in return for all this to promote 
 your interests ? Is this to be the measure of her gra- 
 titude ? Away with such frigid notions ! For my- 
 self, I firmly believe, and I do not hesitate to avow 
 it, that the time will come when Christian Govern- 
 ments will not only think it expedient to stretch 
 their power to the limit here supposed, but will, as 
 Governments, embark in the glorious work of 
 spreading the blessings of knowledge and religion 
 over the world; when kings shall literally be- 
 come nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers 
 
128 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Much important ground common to all Evangelical Sects. 
 
 to the church. Is this enthusiasm ? Then I glory 
 in it. I would rather be an enthusiast on such a 
 theme, and in such a cause, than to have the repu- 
 tation of being the most prudent, calculating man 
 that breathes. 
 
 The chief apprehension on this subject, unless I 
 err in my opinion, is that sectarian prejudices will 
 be excited, and an undue influence exerted in fa- 
 vour of the sect to which the master might happen 
 to belong. In one word, proselytism is the bug- 
 bear. But is there not much and most important 
 ground common to all evangelical denominations 
 of Christians 1 Do they not all receive and insist 
 upon the great essential principles of religion, such 
 as the divine authority and truth of the Holy 
 Scriptures, the being and perfections of God, his mo- 
 ral government of the world, the immortality of the 
 soul, the fall and redemption of man, his account- 
 ability, the obligations of a pure morality, and the 
 doctrine of a future judgment, and of endless re- 
 wards and punishments'? And cannot these truths 
 so sublime in themselves, so well fitted to expand 
 and exalt the nnind, and of infinite moment to 
 every human being, be taught, to the entire exclu- 
 sion, if need be, of everything of a sectarian cha- 
 racter ? Surely, it would be better to omit, by com- 
 mon consent, all reference to particular creeds and 
 dogmas, than to thrust out entirely from a course 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 129 
 
 Method adopted by Prussia to allay Prejudice and promote Harmony. 
 
 of popular instruction, the elucidation and inculca- 
 tion of truths on every account the naost important 
 to be known. 
 
 But, Gentlemen, is it necessary to do even this? 
 On this question I would not express a positive opi- 
 nion, and yet I am incHned to think that there is 
 wisdom enough in the country to devise some plan 
 by which even such a necessity might be obviated. 
 This has actually been done in some countries, and 
 in none with more complete success than in Prus- 
 sia. The inhabitants of that kingdom, as you well 
 know, are composed of extremely heterogeneous 
 materials, and the diversity of religious belief cor- 
 responds to their dissimilarity in other respects. 
 Rather more than half of them are Protestants, 
 several millions Catholics, and a very respectable 
 proportion of the Jewish faith. Yet the Govern- 
 ment requires that religion be taught in all the 
 schools, but without the slightest interference with 
 the freedom of religious opinion. Permit me to 
 call your attention to the provisions of the Prussian 
 law on this subject. 
 
 " The difference of religion," says the law, " is 
 not to be an obstacle in the formation of a school 
 society [district] ; but in forming such a society 
 you must have regard to the numerical proportion 
 of the inhabitants of each faith ; and, as far as it 
 can possibly be done, you shall conjoin with the 
 
130 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Extract from the Prussian Law. Success of the Plan. 
 
 principal master professing the religion of the ma- 
 jority, a second master of the faith of the minority." 
 
 The law farther says : — " The difference of reli- 
 gion in Christian schools necessarily produces dif- 
 ferences in religious instruction. That instruction 
 should be always appropriate to the doctrines and 
 spirit of the creed for which the schools shall 
 be ordained. But as in every school of a Christian 
 state, the dominant spirit, and the one common to 
 all sects, is a pious and deep veneration for God ; 
 so every school may be allowed to receive child- 
 ren of every Christian sect. The masters shall 
 watch with the greatest care that no constraint 
 and no proselytism be exercised. Private and 
 especial masters, of whatever sect the pupil belongs 
 to, shall be charged with his religious education. 
 If, indeed, there be some places where it is impos- 
 sible for the School Committee to procure an espe- 
 cial instructer for every sect; then, parents, if 
 they are unwilling that their children shall adopt 
 the prevailing creed of the school, are entreated 
 themselves to undertake the task of affording 
 them. lessons in their own persuasion." 
 
 Such is the Catholic spirit which pervades the 
 Prussian system in respect to religious education; 
 and such the admirable plan by which it allays 
 sectarian prejudices, harmonizes conflicting ele- 
 ments, and on the most momentous of subjects. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 131 
 
 Opinions of the Wise and Good. Mr. Simpson. 
 
 imparts instruction to all without giving offence 
 to any. This arrangement has been found in 
 practice to answer the end for which it was de- 
 vised; it gives satisfaction to all the different 
 sects ; and it is productive of the happiest effects 
 on the national character and manners. And that 
 which Prussia thus wisely and, I will add, humane- 
 ly performs, cannot the states of this union accom- 
 plish ? To contend that they cannot, would be to 
 acknowledge an inferiority in prudential resources, 
 which, I, for one, am not yet prepared to grant. 
 
 What, Sirs, are the opinions of the wise and 
 good on this point, — especially those who have de- 
 voted most time and thought to it? I do not af- 
 firm that there is entire unanimity among them, 
 but certainly, as far as my knowledge extends, 
 the weight of authority is decidedly in favour of 
 the question which I am now advocating. 
 
 Mr. Simpson, an original, able, and in many 
 respects, judicious Scotch writer, on education, 
 speaking of the small effect produced by pulpit in- 
 structions in Great Britain, and of the want of 
 early, thorough, and systematic religious training, 
 as the cause of it, holds the following language : — 
 " What is the cause of so small a harvest from so 
 immense a cultivation ? Why does not the seed 
 so plentifully sown fructify and produce? There 
 is but one answer to this question, we are not a 
 
132 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Bulwer recommends the Introduction of Religious Instruction in Schools. 
 
 MORALLY EDUCATED PEOPLE. Thoro Is a barren- 
 ness among us where genuine Christianity refuses 
 to take foot ; there is worse ; there are the thorns 
 of an inherent selfishness which choke it ; tares 
 preoccupy the whole field, and the husbandmen sow 
 in vain." Again : near the end of the book from 
 which I quote, he has these explicit words, — " No 
 one can have read this treatise without observing 
 that RELIGIOUS EDUCATION is strenuously advocated 
 in it." 
 
 Bulwer, the novelist, insists, with much force of 
 argument and vigour of language, on the indispen- 
 sable necessity of religion as the foundation of a 
 wise and efficient system of national education. 
 His opinion is thus expressed in brief: — " Let us 
 accomplish our great task of common instruction, 
 not by banishing all religion, but by 'procuring for 
 every pupil instruction in his own. And in this 
 large and catholic harmony of toleration, I do be- 
 lieve the great proportion of our divines, and of 
 our dissenters might, by a prudent government, be 
 induced cheerfully to concur. For both are per- 
 suaded of the necessity of education, both are 
 willing to sacrifice a few minor considerations 
 to a common end, and, under the wide canopy of 
 Christian faith, to secure, each to each, the main- 
 tenance of individual doctrines. I propose, then, 
 that the state shall establish universal education ; 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 133 
 
 Cousin's Opinion. Religion the best base of Popular Instruction, 
 
 / propose that it shall be founded on, and combined 
 with, religious instruction; and I remove, by the sug- 
 gestion I have made, the apprehension of contend- 
 ing sects." 
 
 Victor Cousin, the profoundest of the living 
 philosophers of France, and one of her most ac- 
 complished statesmen, the author of the celebrated 
 Report on Prussian Education, a man once perse- 
 cuted by the priesthood, — is most decided in his 
 opinion on this question : — " The popular schools 
 of a nation," he says, in the work just alluded to, 
 '* ought to be penetrated with the religious spirit 
 of that nation. Is Christianity, or is it not, the re- 
 ligion of the people of France ? We must allow 
 that it is. Then, I ask, shall we respect the reli- 
 gion of the people, or shall we destroy it ? If we 
 undertake the destruction of Christianity, then, I 
 own, we must take care not to teach it. But if 
 we do not profess to ourselves that end, we must 
 teach our children the faith which has civilised 
 their parents, and the liberal spirit of which has 
 prepared and sustains our great modern institu- 
 tions. Religion, in my eyes, is the best base of 
 popular instruction. I know a little of Europe; 
 nowhere have I seen good schools for the people 
 where the Christian charity was not. In human 
 societies there are some things for the accomplish- 
 ment of which religion is necessary. Were you 
 
 12 
 
134 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Mr. Dick. His Works full of Passages on this Subject. 
 
 to lavish the treasures of the state, to tax parish 
 and district, still you could not dispense with 
 Christian charity ; or with that spirit of humble- 
 ness and self-restraint, of courageous resignation 
 and nnodest dignity, which Christianity, well under- 
 stood and ivell-taiight, can alone give to the instruc- 
 tion of the poor. It would be necessary to call 
 religion to our aid, were it only a matter of 
 finance." 
 
 From the works of Mr. Dick, one of the most 
 useful and popular writers of the present age, it 
 would not be difficult to cull a small volume of 
 extracts having a pointed reference to this subject, 
 and all in full harmony with the views here advo- 
 cated. One brief passage, however, is all that I 
 can make room for : " In the preceding sketches," 
 he remarks, " I have taken for granted, that, during 
 the whole process of education, the attention of 
 the young should be directed to the manifestations 
 of the Divine attributes — the fundamental princi- 
 ples of Christianity, the rules of moral action, and 
 the eternal world to which they are destined. 
 These are subjects which should never be lost 
 sight of for a single day, and which should be in- 
 terwoven with every department of literary and 
 scientific instruction. In a particular manner it 
 should be deeply impressed on the minds of the 
 young, that the instructions which they receive, and 
 the studies in which they now engage, are intended, 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 135 
 
 Mr, Wyse. Intellectual Education without Religion, an Evil. 
 
 not merely to qualify themfoi^ the business of the 
 present life, hut likewise to ^prepare them for the fe- 
 licities and the employments of the life to come. 
 This is one of the ends of education which has 
 been glaringly overlooked in most of our initiatory 
 schools." 
 
 Mr. Wyse, a leading member of the British Par- 
 liament, in a very able work on the Necessity of a 
 National System of Education, published last year 
 in London, speaks thus explicitly and forcibly on 
 this subject: — 
 
 " The education which confines to the desk or 
 chapel is partial ; it is only a chapter in the system. 
 It is pernicious — it is a portion only of the blessing. 
 If such be the result of separating physical and in- 
 tellectual education, how much more so of divid- 
 ing intellectual and moral ! It is laboriously pro- 
 viding for the community dangers and crimes. It 
 intrusts power, with the perfect certainty of its 
 being abused. It brings into the very heart of our 
 social existence the two hostile principles of Mani- 
 cheism ; it sets up the glory and beauty of civilisa- 
 tion, to be dashed to pieces by the * evil spirit,' to 
 whom it gives authority over it. It disciplines the 
 bad passions of our nature against the good, mak- 
 ing men wicked by rule — rendering vice system — 
 intrusting to the clever head the strong hand, and 
 setting both loose by the impulse of the bad heart 
 
136 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Makes Men wicked by Rule. Takes from Education its very Essence. 
 
 below. The omission of Physical Education ren- 
 ders the other two ineffective or precarious ; but 
 the neglect of Moral Education converts physical 
 and intellectual into positive evils. The pestilence 
 of a high-taught, but corrupt mind, ' blowing where 
 it listeth' scathes and sears the souls of men — it is 
 felt for miles and years almost interminable. By 
 the press (the steam of the intellectual world) it 
 touches distant ages and other hemispheres. It 
 corrupts the species in mass. It is not only in the 
 actual generation, but in the rickety offspring 
 which follow late and long, that its deep-eating 
 poison is strongly detected. Late ages wonder at 
 the waste of great means, at the perversion of 
 high opportunities, and noble powers, at the dere- 
 liction of solemn duties, which every where cha- 
 racterise these strong, but evil beings. Call them 
 conquerors — call them philosophers — call them 
 patriots — put on what golden seeming you may — 
 when the mask falls off, as it always does, in due 
 season, we see behind it the worst combination 
 which can disgust or afflict humanity. Such men- 
 deliverers and enlighteners (as their sycophants 
 hail them) — ^^such men are the true master- workers 
 of the vices and calamities of their age and coun- 
 try. But who made them ? They who taught 
 them. Education left out its very essence. It 
 gave them knowledge, but it left them immorality. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 137 
 
 Dr. Barrow. Obligation of Schoolmasters to teach Religion. 
 
 " When I speak of Moral Education, I imply 
 religion ; and when I speak of religion, I speak of 
 Christianity. It is morality, it is conscience, j)ar 
 excellence. Even in the most worldly sense, it 
 could easily be shown, that no other morality so 
 truly binds, no other education so effectually se- 
 cures even the coarse and material interests of 
 society. The economist himself would find his 
 gain in such a system. Even if it did not exist, 
 he should invent it. It works his most sanguine 
 speculations of good, into far surer and more rapid 
 conclusions, than any system he could attempt to 
 set up in its place. No system of philosophy has 
 better consulted the mechanism of society, or join- 
 ed it together with a closer adaptation of all its 
 parts, than Christianity." 
 
 Dr. Barrow, for many years a distinguished 
 teacher in London, an eminent scholar, a classical 
 and elegant writer, a sober-minded educationist, 
 and a man than whom none has written better on 
 the general subject of education, says : — " The 
 obligation of a schoolmaster to give religious in- 
 struction to his pupils may, I think, be unanswera- 
 bly proved ; whether Christianity be, what we are 
 taught to believe it, the dictate of divine revela- 
 tion ; or, w^hat modern philosophy affects to deem 
 it, the mere expedient of human policy." 
 
 This obligation he then proceeds to prove, setting 
 
138 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Four Arguments to prove this Obligation. 
 
 forth the argument in support of it, with much 
 ability, under four heads, viz. the influence of 
 Christianity in checking the acknowledged vicious 
 propensities of human nature, and the actual dis- 
 orders thence resulting in society ; its necessity 
 to the purity of the political atmosphere, and the 
 stability of political institutions ; its connexion 
 with personal virtue and usefulness; and finally, 
 its indispensable necessity to the attainment of 
 everlasting happiness. The truth and excellency 
 of Christianity, supported by the commands of its 
 Author, are thus shown to constitute the obligation 
 on the part of instructors to teach it to those en- 
 trusted to their care; and one circumstance, which 
 peculiarly brings home this obligation to the school- 
 master, is, as Dr. Barrow truly remarks, that in- 
 struction on this subject, above all others, must be 
 early begun and constantly continued. In this 
 point, as in almost every other, man is the crea- 
 ture as much of custom as of conviction ; and it is 
 generally confessed, that if sentiments of religion 
 are not impressed upon the mind in infancy or in 
 early youth, they will seldom be impressed with 
 sufficient force and effect. The heart will soon 
 be occupied with other thoughts, and the life form- 
 ed to different habits; it will not, without reluc- 
 tance, receive such novel opinions, as tend to im- 
 pose additional restraints upon its appetites and 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 139 
 
 Assuming the Authenticity of the Bible, the Question decided at once. 
 
 propensities. A vacant mind may, indeed, at any 
 time, be seized with the terrors of superstition, or 
 the reveries of enthusiasm ; but in youth only can 
 be taught such a steady and rational system of 
 faith, as shall form the principle of duty, and the 
 comfort of affliction, through all the vicissitudes 
 of life. 
 
 " Assuming Christianity to be," observes Dr. 
 Barrow in the course of his Essay on Religious 
 Instruction, " what we are taught to believe it, a 
 revelation from heaven, the question is at once 
 and for ever decided. Nor have I supposed the 
 possibility of its being the mere expedient of hu- 
 man policy, as if I thought its divine origin could 
 rationally be doubted ; but that I might discuss 
 the point before me on the ground most favourable 
 to those who differ from me in opinion. To the 
 utmost liberality of sentiment, I hope I have con- 
 ceded enough; to the modern affectation of it, 
 certainly too much. I shall no longer, therefore, 
 even in argument, compromise the interests of 
 truth and the dignity of divine revelation. The 
 doctrines of our Scriptures I shall consider as sa- 
 cred and inestimable truths ; before which sophis- 
 try should be silent, and presumption abashed ; and 
 the precepts I shall not only receive with reverence, 
 as the laws of God ; but contend for them with 
 zeal, as the bulwark of the happiness of man. 
 
140 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Addison's Opinion. Milton's Opinion. 
 
 For my own part, says Addison, I think the being 
 of a God as so little to be doubted, that it is almost 
 the only truth we are sure of; and to this I will 
 venture to add, for it is little more than the fair 
 and natural inference, that the doctrines and duties 
 of religion are almost the only study, which we 
 are not at liberty to cultivate or to neglect. They 
 constitute the only science, which is equally and 
 indispensably necessary to men of every rank, 
 every age, and every profession. Admit the au- 
 thenticity of the Bible, and the principal object of 
 education becomes at once as obvious, as it is im- 
 portant ; to regulate the sentiments, and form the 
 habits of beings, degenerate, indeed, and corrupt 
 by their own fault; but made by their Creator 
 rational in their faculties, and responsible for their 
 conduct. If it be the business of education to pre- 
 pare us for our situation in life, and the business of 
 life to prepare us for the happiness of eternity; 
 then do we perceive a system of perfect order and 
 beauty in itself; and equally consistent with what 
 we observe in the world, and with the wisdom and 
 goodness of its Almighty Author. Science imme- 
 diately finds its proper level, and its due estima- 
 tion." 
 
 The great Milton, a name that cannot be exalted 
 by praise from any quarter at this late day, speaks, 
 in his Treatise on Education, of the principles of 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 141 
 
 Hon. Samuel L. Southard's Defence of the Bible. 
 
 the young in schools "requiring a special rein- 
 forcement of constant and sound indoctrinating, 
 to set them right and firm, instructing them more 
 amply in the knowledge of virtue, and hatred of 
 vice ;" and also of " reducing moral instructions, 
 derived from other sources than the Scriptures, 
 in their nightward studies, vvherev^^ith they close 
 the day's vi^ork, under the determinate sentence of 
 David or Solomon, or the evangelists and apos- 
 tolic Scriptures." And in another place he de- 
 clares explicitly : "The end of learning is to 
 
 REPAIR THE RUINS OF OUR FIRST PARENTS, BY RE- 
 QUIRING TO KNOW God aright, and out of that 
 
 KNOWLEDGE TO LOVE HIM AND TO IMITATE HIM."* 
 
 * One of our own most eminent citizens, the Hon. Samuel L, 
 Southard, in an Address recently delivered before the Literary 
 Societies of the College of New Jersey, — an Address marked 
 throughout by eloquence of style, profound research, and loftiness 
 of sentiment, — holds the following language at pp. 17 and 18 : — 
 
 " Observe, again, two comparatively unlettered men, laborious 
 in their employments, and altogether without the adornments of 
 literature. If one diligently reads the Bible, and becomes fami- 
 liar with its language and expressions, and the other never opens 
 it, you may tell the fact, by the superiority of the former, in his 
 ordinary manner of conversation, even upon topics unconnected 
 with the doctrines of the Book. The same fact is illustrated by 
 two schools, in one of which it is sedulously taught, and in the 
 other, is never read. You cannot converse with the scholars, 
 without remarking the contrast." 
 
142 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Influence of the Bible in promoting Virtue and checking Vice. 
 
 It would be easy to multiply quotations from 
 writers of inferior note ; but let these suffice. Here 
 I am willing to rest both the main question, and the 
 question of authority. 
 
 And again at pp. 32 and 33 ; — 
 
 " A rigorous investigation of the authenticity and principles 
 of this book, will discipline your powers — impart to you generous 
 and lofty sentiments — high and controlling sense of duty — force 
 of character to meet responsibilities, and firmness to encounter 
 trials. And what affection or feeling of the heart is there, which 
 will not find employment in the study ? Do you seek an expla- 
 nation of the nature, or illustration of any pure feeling — of filial 
 duty and affection — of conjugal or parental love — of sympathy 
 and kindness — of strong enduring friendship — of attachment to 
 country and her institutions — of any one emotion which is worthy 
 of you as social and immortal beings — or of any corrupt and de- 
 basing practice which reason forbids you to indulge ? It will be 
 found there." 
 
 I did not feel at liberty in this connexion, to introduce the 
 above quotations into the text, because the writer was not advo- 
 cating the study of the Bible in common schools, and therefore 
 to quote him as authority on this point would have been a mani- 
 fest perversion of his language. Nevertheless, I cannot doubt, 
 that one who has written so ably and strenuously in favour of 
 the study of the Holy Scriptures in colleges, would be equally 
 averse to their exclusion from the popular schools ; especially, as 
 one of the illustrations with which he enforces his views, is taken 
 from the influence of the Bible in schools. At all events, what is 
 here extracted from the learned Senator's Address, is strictly 
 pertinent to the argument, and as such, I adopt it as my own, 
 with due acknowledgments. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 143 
 
 Apprehension as to the Effect of Education on Labouring Classes. 
 
 It was said in a former part of these Hints, that 
 the only objection that could be urged against the 
 most thorough national education, was its expen- 
 siveness. I recall in part that expression. It is 
 sometimes urged, even in this country, that such 
 an education as is here contended for, would tend 
 to raise the labouring classes above their sphere, 
 make them dissatisfied with their station, and give 
 them a distaste for manual employments. This ob- 
 jection maybe as properly considered here as any 
 where. 
 
 Now in order to furnish a reasonable ground 
 for such an apprehension, one or both, of two as- 
 sumptions must be shown to be true ; either there 
 must be some disgrace in manual labour, or it must 
 tend to some degree of unhappiness, or both these 
 qualities must attach to it. Let no man tell me 
 that there is any real disgrace in labour, when 
 I read in one of the Epistles to the Thessalonians 
 such an injunction as the following, — " Study to 
 be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work 
 loith your own hands, as we command you ; that 
 ye may walk honestly toward them that are with- 
 out, and that ye may have lack of nothing ;" when 
 I hear Paul declaring, in the same epistle, this 
 fact, — " For ye remember, brethren, our labour 
 and travail: for labouring night and day, because 
 we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we 
 
144 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 This objection considered and answered. 
 
 preached unto you the gospel of God ;" when I 
 know that David was the feeder of his father's 
 flocks ; when the Scriptures every where inculcate 
 industry as one of the first of moral duties; and 
 above all, when it is more than probable that 
 our blessed Saviour himself worked for many 
 years at the trade of a carpenter, thus teaching 
 us that real dignity and worth do not depend on 
 any external circumstances, but consist in the quali- 
 ties of the mind and heart. 
 
 And what shall we say of the latter assumption '? 
 Does labour tend to unhappiness ? In none, cer- 
 tainly, but the idle and the vicious. To the honest 
 and industrious labouring man there cannot be a 
 greater punishment than deprivation of employ- 
 ment. 
 
 Do those persons who urge this objection con- 
 sider that one main design of all good education 
 is to teach men their duty, with the reasons of it 1 
 And who ever heard that teaching men their duty, 
 especially if the instruction was imparted in a 
 proper manner, was calculated to give them a dis- 
 inclination to perform it? " The admirable mecha- 
 nism of society, together with that subordination 
 of ranks which is essential to its subsistence, is surely 
 not an elaborate imposition, which the exercise of 
 reason would detect and expose. The objection 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 145 
 
 Another Objection to general Education. Founded in Selfishness. 
 
 we have stated, implies a reflection on the social 
 order, equally impolitic, invidious, and unjust." 
 
 Finally, in reply to this objection : In the schools 
 that I w^ould propose to establish, as you have 
 already seen, manual and intellectual instruction 
 should go hand in hand ; the very first lesson, and 
 the one continually inculcated, should be a lesson 
 of practical independence ; and the pupils should 
 be taught and retaught, on all occasions, that no- 
 thing is really disgraceful but idleness and crime, 
 and that the true dignity of man consists in honest 
 labour for honourable purposes. 
 
 There is another objection made by some men 
 against contributing any thing, in the shape of 
 taxes or otherwise, towards the education of the 
 mass of children in the community. It is this: 
 viz. that they educate their own children them- 
 selves, and others ought to do the same by theirs. 
 This objection is founded in selfishness, and an 
 argument to refute it, based upon higher princi- 
 ples, though easily constructed, would be thrown 
 away upon such people. Let us, therefore, meet 
 them on their own ground, and see whether the 
 selfish principle itself, properly understood, will not 
 lead them to a different conclusion. The author 
 imagines himself in the company of one of these 
 objectors, and labouring to convince him of his 
 error. 
 
 13 
 
146 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Imaginary Dialogue between the Author and the Objector. 
 
 Author. — Well, my friend, I am anxious that 
 our common schools should be established upon a 
 better basis than they are at present, and I am 
 writing a book to that end. I maintain that all 
 the children in the community ought to be well 
 educated, and that the expense of their education 
 should be defrayed by the whole community, each 
 man paying in proportion to his property. 
 
 Objector. — My dear sir, that would be neither 
 more nor less than this, — that the rich should edu- 
 cate the poor. 
 
 AuT. — Exactly so. 
 
 Obj. — Monstrous ! It would be rank injustice. 
 Can you have the face to promulgate such a doc- 
 trine in a free country ? It smells of despotism ; 
 it has no communion with the spirit of true repub- 
 licanism. No, no, let every man educate his own 
 children, in his own way ; that's my doctrine, and 
 it's my practice too. I employ a man in my own 
 house to teach my children ; I pay him punc- 
 tually every quarter ; and when that's done, my 
 conscience is quite easy : I feel that I have done 
 my part towards the education of society. 
 
 AuT. — This is truly an easy way of performing 
 duty, and of having a quiet conscience; but I 
 yield the point of duty, and acknowledge, for the 
 time being, the soundness of your positions. But, 
 my friend, do you love your own children ? 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 147 
 
 Dialogue continued. 
 
 Obj. — That's a strange question, truly. Do you 
 take me for a nnonster '? 
 
 AuT. — No, I do not ; I know too well the ten- 
 derness and strength of your parental feelings. 
 You say you have your children instructed at 
 home. You can't seclude them entirely from the 
 company of other children? 
 
 Obj. — No ; and it grieves me to the heart. They 
 learn so much that is bad from them. 
 
 AuT. — How much would you give to have these 
 influences purified, so that they should cease to be 
 injurious, or at least become far less so than they 
 are at present? 
 
 Obj. — How much? No price would be too 
 great. I would willingly pay a hundred dollars 
 a year to secure so great an advantage for my 
 children. 
 
 AuT. — In admitting so much, you yield the 
 whole argument. If you, and such as you, would 
 contribute but a modicum of the sum you have 
 named, such schools might be universally esta- 
 blished as w^ould purify the moral atmosphere of 
 society, and free the influences to which your 
 children are subjected from a great portion of 
 their present contaminating virus. Besides, are 
 you quite sure there would not be true economy 
 in this ? Perhaps the course here recommended 
 would so far raise the common school above its 
 
148 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Selfishness itself would lead to Liberality in this Matter. 
 
 present level, in point of intellectual advantage 
 and moral influence, that you would be willing to 
 entrust to it the education of your own children. 
 In that case there would be a positive pecuniary 
 gain to yourself in your contributions for the good 
 of others. 
 
 This, I am persuaded, is sound reasoning, though 
 it appeals to the selfish principle, and depends upon 
 it for all its force. It is the best argument for those 
 to whom it is addressed, though one of a more ele- 
 vated character would satisfy the philosopher and 
 the statesman. 
 
149 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 QUALIFICATION OF TEACHERS. 
 
 Importance of this point — Our present Deficiency in well qualified 
 Instructors — Classes of Men who chiefly engage in this busi- 
 ness — Motives which actuate them — Their ignorance — Inade- 
 quate Views of Parents — Anecdotes illustrative of this — A 
 Teacher in the Ban de la Roche — Empirical Methods of In- 
 struction — Inefficiency in Government^ Its Cause — School- 
 Teaching for the most part a Temporary Business — Some 
 Exceptions to the above Remarks — Bad eflfects of the present 
 State of Things on Teachers and Pupils — Our general Intel- 
 ligence as a Nation admitted — Not attributable to our Popular 
 Schools — Its true Causes pointed out — Glorions Results 
 might be looked for from the Union of these Causes and 
 a well organized System of Popular Education — Conditions of 
 such a System — Provision for the Education of Teachers a 
 most important Condition — Practical Error of Parents in this 
 Matter — Deplorable Effect of it — Teaching must be made a 
 Profession, and become respectable — No office more truly 
 honourable than that of an Instructor — Its present degradation 
 — Must be raised to its proper Rank — This can be effected only 
 by the Establishment of Teacher's Seminaries — Institutions 
 of this Kind the intellectual Want of the Age — Prussia al- 
 ready supplied with them — Reference to some other Countries 
 — Origin and History of these Institutions — Theirgreat^Import- 
 ance— They are the Life-BIood of an efficient System of Popu- 
 lar Education — Their Necessity insisted on by all Writers on 
 both sides of the Atlantic— Extract from the Edinburgh Re- 
 view on this Subject — The question examined whether these 
 Seminaries should be connected with other Institutions, or 
 exist under a separate Organization — Three Reasons for prefer- 
 ring the latter Plan — Its effect would be better, first, on the 
 
 13* 
 
150 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Who are our Teachers? Motives for engaging in Teaching. 
 
 character of the Teacher ; secondly, on their Respectability ; 
 thirdly, on their Education — General Principles of Organiza- 
 tion — Two leading Results to be aimed at — good Teachers 
 and some security that they will exercise their Profession in 
 the State where educated — Details more difficult — The lights of 
 Experience w^anting among us — Must look to Prussia for 
 Model Schools — Conduct of Men in Parallel Cases in the ordi- 
 nary Business of Life — Propriety and Utility of sending 
 Agents to examine and report upon the Prussian Schools. 
 
 The qualification of teachers is a point which 
 requires careful consideration in the organization 
 of any general system of popular education. In 
 this respect our schools generally will, I fear, be 
 found to be even more deficient than in regard to 
 their course of studies. 
 
 Who and what are our teachers at present 1 It 
 is with pain and sorrow that I speak disparagingly 
 of any class of my fellow citizens, especially that 
 with which my own relations are nearest, and my 
 sympathies most lively ; but the paramount claims 
 of truth and society must be permitted to outweigh 
 all personal considerations. 
 
 What motives are now most influential in prompt- 
 ing men to follow the business of common school- 
 teaching? Some engage in this employment 
 during the winter months because they can make 
 higher wages by it than by farming or mechanical 
 labour; some follow the profession of teaching 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 151 
 
 Their great Ignorance. Anecdote illustraling it. 
 
 because they are too feeble to endure the more 
 hardy and often more coveted toils of active out- 
 door employment; others again, because they have 
 failed of success in in all other pursuits ; others for 
 the more honourable purpose of aiding themselves 
 in obtaining a liberal education ; and the multitude, 
 at least in some states, are made up of thriftless 
 adventurers of every grade, too lazy to work, too 
 poor to live without it, and much more fit to be 
 peddling wooden nutmegs, or making hickory 
 hams, than to undertake the task of training the 
 youth of a nation to the knowledge and love of 
 their duties as citizens and men. 
 
 Few of these persons possess any thing in the 
 shape of literary attainments beyond the bald and 
 meagre knowledge which they teach, and the 
 many are much more fit to go to school than to 
 undertake the labour of teaching others. Parents 
 themselves, it is much to be feared, entertain gene- 
 rally very inadequate notions of the importance 
 of having well qualified teachers for their children, 
 and often select them from very unworthy motives, 
 — such as relationship, friendship, cheapness, and 
 sometimes even because they can make them- 
 selves useful in other things than their appropriate 
 business. I have heard, gentlemen, of a district 
 in our own state, where the loss of a teacher was 
 bitterly deplored for — what think you? Because 
 
152 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Examination of a Teacher in Connecticut. Amusing Answer. 
 
 their children would lose his valuable services ? 
 No such thing ; but because he was the best judge 
 of horses, and the best horse doctor in the district ! 
 I saw, a few years ago, in the Christian Observer 
 of Connecticut, an account, deemed authentic by 
 the Editor,* of an examination of a teacher by a 
 school committee in one of the districts of that 
 state. One of the questions put to the candidate 
 for employment, was, '• Where is the District of 
 Columbia ?" His first reply was, " In Vermont." 
 He was given to understand that that was not ex- 
 actly its locality. He then shifted it to other quar- 
 ters, and, after having made it perambulate various 
 parts of the Union, the examiners and the examinee 
 settled down in the learned conclusion that the 
 District of Columbia was partly in Virginia and 
 partly in Delaware. And there ended "the strife of 
 tongues ;" except as it may have been displayed 
 in the intercourse of the master with his pupils, as 
 it is almost needless to add, the applicant passed 
 the ordeal successfully, and was admitted to em- 
 ployment. 
 
 Mr. Taylor, in his District school, declares that it 
 
 * The Rev. H. Hooker, a gentleman not likely to believe any 
 thing on insufficient grounds. The Observer declares that in 
 some townships in that state, there is not a man, except the mi- 
 nister, competent to examine a teacher. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION, 153 
 
 A Teacher in the Ban de la Roche. Empirical Methods of Instruction. 
 
 is nouncommonthing for the examining committees 
 in New York to allow applicants to pass, because 
 they happen to be third or fourth cousins to some 
 one of their own honourable body. 
 
 Such facts as these remind one strongly of what 
 is related of one of the schoolmasters in the Ban 
 de la Roche, when Mr. Stouber first went there. 
 He had been employed in that capacity for the 
 excellent reason that he had become too old and 
 infirm to take care of the pigs. Being thus enfee- 
 bled and incapacitated, he had been appointed, as 
 to a business next in importance, to take care of 
 the children. On being interrogated as to what 
 he taught them, he replied, with perfect naivete, 
 " Nothing." And to the question why he taught 
 them nothing, he answered, with equal simpHcity, 
 " Because I know nothing myself." 
 
 But not only is the stock of knowledge of our 
 common school-masters extremely limited; they 
 labour under the further disadvantage of being 
 ignorant of the best modes of imparting to their 
 pupils even the modicum they possess themselves. 
 I was recently informed by the Superintendent of 
 Common Schools in Pennsylvania,* that a teacher 
 
 * Mr. Burrows, one of the most able, judicious, and useful 
 friends of popular education in the country. 
 
154 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 A Schoolmaster in Pennsylvania. His Objection to Classification. 
 
 in that state told him that he had heard much of 
 the advantages of classification in schools, but that, 
 having tried it himself, he had found it was all 
 folly, and that he vi^as now satisfied that the only 
 useful method of instruction was to hear the pupils 
 recite their exercises one by one. Would you 
 know the cause of so signal a failure of one of the 
 simplest methods of economizing the labour of a 
 teacher, and multiplying the benefits of instruction? 
 Behold this gentleman's plan of operations 1 He 
 divided his scholars oflf into classes, gave each an 
 invariable position in the class, always commenced 
 the recitation at the same end, and required as 
 nearly as possible an equal proportion of the lesson 
 to be recited by each member. Now, sirs, I ask 
 you whether it requires the gift of second sight to 
 perceive what this master's objection to classing 
 his pupils was 1 Each, for the most part, learned 
 only the portion that he supposed would come to 
 him in the recitation. The objection, therefore, 
 was, that classification had a bad effect on both 
 the morals and the knowledge of the pupils, tempt- 
 ing them at the same time to use deceit and to 
 neglect their studies. And this is but a specimen 
 of the thousand and one errors in the modes of 
 instruction, assuming as many different shapes and 
 hues, which have arisen out of the ignorance and 
 inexperience of teachers ; — errors, which have de- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 155 
 
 Defective Government. Ignorance of Human Nature. 
 
 graded the profession of teaching and perverted 
 its ends, which have tortured and dv^arfed the in- 
 tellects of learners, and contributed more perhaps 
 than any other cause to that vt^ide-spread indiffer- 
 ence which is now the principle obstacle in the 
 way of the adoption of improved systems of gene- 
 ral education. 
 
 What shall we say of the ability and success of 
 our common school instructors in that important 
 branch of their duties, comprehended in the term 
 GOVERNMENT ? Alas ! it would be easy to sketch 
 here such a picture of passion, menace, and brute 
 force on the one side, of rudeness, insubordination, 
 and open resistance on the other, and of coarse 
 and angry altercation on both, as would pain every 
 human heart, much more those who are capable 
 of appreciating not only the immediate effects of 
 such a state of things on the happiness of the 
 parties, but all those remote influences it cannot 
 fail to exert on the character and conduct of those 
 young beings, who are, and are to be, the greatest 
 sufferers. How should it be otherwise 1 In order 
 to the maintenance of rational government in a 
 school, in order that the influence of discipline 
 may be beneficial instead of hurtful, it is an indis- 
 pensable condition that the master be able, at least 
 in some good degree, to control the public opinion 
 of his pupils. This is in fact the great instrument 
 
156 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 School-keeping a temporary Business. Exceptions to foregoing Remarks. 
 
 of good and successful school government. It is, 
 however, an instrument beyond the power of those 
 to use, who have no knowledge of the principles 
 of human nature, and especially of those peculiar 
 manifestations of it displayed in childhood. It is 
 this almost total ignorance of human nature which, 
 by the practical errors of which it is the source, 
 is the principal cause of the prevalent failure in 
 government of those who now have the manage- 
 ment of our common schools. 
 
 The aggravated evils of the condition of things 
 above described, are yet further increased by the 
 circumstance, that most even of the teachers we 
 now have, poor as they are, regard their employ- 
 ment as merely temporary, have an extreme dis- 
 reUsh for it, and only await a favourable opportu- 
 nity to quit the odious task, and engage in pursuits 
 more congenial with their inclinations. 
 
 Let me, however, act upon the principle, as con- 
 sonant to reason as it is to Scripture, of " rendering 
 unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." I would 
 not wilUngly speak unjustly of any, and least of all 
 of a class of men whose reward is so dispropor- 
 tionate to their toils, and who occupy a station in 
 society with which, under existing circumstances, 
 so much is connected that is disagreeable. I there- 
 fore most gladly admit that there are honourable 
 exceptions to the general rule. Even now teach- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 157 
 
 Some good Teachers. General bad Effects of the System. 
 
 ers are occasionally to be met with, who would 
 be an honour to the profession under a system the 
 best organized and the most comprehensive. But 
 this does not invalidate the general fact of their 
 want of suitable qualifications ; it still remains true 
 that the primary schoolmasters of this country — 
 certainly of our own state — are, as a body, unfit 
 for the station they fill, and unworthy of being 
 entrusted with so momentous a charge as the in- 
 tellectual and moral training of a nation's youth, 
 the bud and promise of her future strength. 
 
 That there may be, and are, some good schools 
 under such a system, has been fully admitted; but 
 the evils of the system are incalculable. Inexpe- 
 rience, disgust, a morbid anxiety for and feverish 
 anticipation of release from what is regarded as a 
 loathsome and onerous thraldom, want of interest 
 in the pupil's progress, and an entire absence of 
 professional pride, — these are its legitimate and ne- 
 cessarv fruits, so far as instructers are concerned. 
 Its effects on the moral character and intellectual 
 developement of our youth, and of course on their 
 happiness and usefulness, cannot but be disastrous 
 and deplorable in the extreme. 
 
 But are we not, it may be asked, in the main, 
 an intelligent, shrewd, well-informed people? I 
 freely, nay, exultingly, admit that we are ; but I 
 deny that it is to our common schools that we are 
 
 14 
 
158 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Our Intelligence as a Nation. Its Causes. 
 
 chiefly indebted for this character. As a nation, 
 we are educated more by contact with each other, 
 by business, by newspapers, magazines, and circu- 
 lating libraries, by public meetings and conven- 
 tions, by lyceums, by speeches in congress, in the 
 state legislatures, and at political gatherings, and 
 in various other ways, than by direct instructions 
 imparted in the school room. And if so much 
 general intelligence, as now unquestionably cha- 
 racterises us as a people, is the result of the pre- 
 sent state of things, what might we not anticipate, 
 if to all these influences were superadded the ad- 
 vantages of a well organised and comprehensive 
 system of primary education? Results, glorious 
 in themselves, and most auspicious to our pros- 
 pects as a nation, might be looked for from such 
 a union. 
 
 I say, A WELL ORGANIZED SYSTEM. But what 
 
 are the conditions of such a system ? Allow me 
 to summon Mr. Cousin to my aid in answering 
 this question. " The best plans of instruction," he 
 says, " cannot be executed but by good teachers ; 
 and the state has done nothing for popular educa- 
 tion, if it does not watch that those who devote 
 themselves to teaching be well prepared; then 
 suitably placed, encouraged, and guided in the 
 duty of continued self-improvement; and lastly 
 rewarded and promoted in proportion to their 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 159 
 
 Conditions of a well organised System. Philosophy of good Schools. 
 
 advancement, and punished according to their 
 faults." 
 
 Here is the whole philosophy of good schools 
 and sound education reduced within the connpass 
 of a nutshell. What are their elements ? First, 
 good plans of instruction ; then, good teachers ; 
 next, provision by the state for preparing teachers 
 for their work ; fourthly, suitable encouragement 
 and guidance in the duty of continued self-improve- 
 ment; and finally, promotions and rewards for 
 the meritorious, and punishments and disgraces 
 for the unworthy. And these are all essential ele- 
 ments of a well organised system. Take away 
 any one of them, and you destroy the proportions 
 of the whole structure, and materially diminish 
 both its strength and beauty; — take away the third 
 — provision for the education of teachers — and 
 you remove the corner stone of the whole system, 
 and leave it comparatively powerless for any use- 
 ful purpose. No general plan of popular education 
 can be at all entitled to the epithet well-organ- 
 ised, which does not provide for the training of 
 masters. This, in my opinion, is the first duty of 
 a state with respect to schools ; and without it, all 
 other legislation in reference to this matter, what- 
 ,ever partial advantages it may result in, must stop 
 short of the full benefits at which it ought to aim, 
 and which it might accomplish. 
 
160 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Practical Error on this subject. Its fatal Effects. 
 
 There has been a radical error in the practice^ 
 if not in the opinions, of parents on this subject. 
 They have acted as if they thought that he who 
 was unfit for any thing else would make a very 
 tolerable teacher for their children. No opinion 
 could be more preposterous, no course of action 
 more short-sighted. It is not thus that men think 
 and act on other subjects. A mechanic must 
 serve an apprenticeship of three, four, or five years, 
 before he is allowed to undertake the formation of 
 an elegant piece of furniture, or a complicated 
 machine, when nothing can result from failure but 
 the loss of the rude material and the workman's 
 time. But we have been in the habit of committing 
 the infant mind, that most delicate and complex 
 piece of God's workmanship, to men who have 
 never studied even the first principles of its struc- 
 ture ; and that too at a time when its parts are 
 most easily disarranged, and when such disar- 
 rangement produces the most fatal and lasting 
 efl^ects. 
 
 While such views thus practically prevail, it is 
 in vain to look for the fruits of a wise system of 
 elementary instruction. There is no conviction 
 deeper or stronger in my mind than this, — that 
 but httle can be effected in this country towards 
 elevating popular education, and establishing it 
 on a firm basis, till we have a body of teachers 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 161 
 
 Profession of a Teacher disreputable. Must be raised to its proper Rank. 
 
 regularly trained to their business, and the occu- 
 pation of an instructer shall take its proper rank 
 among the learned professions. When the title of 
 schoolmaster, now almost a reproach and a hiss- 
 ing, shall be a passport to respect, then, and not 
 till then, will the general education become what 
 it ought to be. And who, let me ask, is entitled to 
 a higher degree of consideration and respect from 
 the community than the devoted and laborious 
 teacher of youth? Does the nature of a man's 
 occupation confer any proportion of dignity, apart 
 from the manner in which he performs its duties'? 
 We can scarcely deny that it does. What nobler 
 work, then, can task the human energies than that 
 of training immortal beings to act well their part 
 in life, and to enjoy the rewards of virtue through 
 interminable years ? " It may be affirmed, with- 
 out the least hesitation, that there is no office in 
 general society more honourable or important than 
 that of an instructer of the young, and none on 
 which the present and future happiness of the hu- 
 man race so much depends. But in consequence 
 of [various circumstances], the office has been 
 rendered inefficient for the great purposes of hu- 
 man improvement, and the teacher himself de- 
 graded from that rank which he ought to hold in 
 the scale of society." He must now be raised to 
 his proper elevation in that scale, or we must be 
 
 14* 
 
162 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATIOK 
 
 Necessity of Teachers' Seminaries. Established in other Countries. 
 
 content to forego the advantages of a higher nioral 
 and intellectual developement of the popular mind. 
 But the days of miracles are over; and therefore 
 it is that I conclude that this elevation is a result 
 which can never take place, to the extent desired 
 and needed, till seminaries for the education of 
 TEACHERS shall havc gone into general operation. 
 Institutions of this kind may be regarded as em- 
 phatically the intellectual want of the age, and es- 
 pecially of our ov^^n country. In Prussia this is no 
 longer a want ; it is already a realization. The 
 number of such institutions in that kingdom is now 
 fully equal to supply the entire demand for teach- 
 ers throughout its territories. France has nobly 
 followed the lead of Prussia in this matter, and her 
 Normal schools will ere long furnish her with a 
 corps of instructors every way qualified for their 
 work. Many of the German principalities, and 
 some of the cantons of Switzerland, have achiev- 
 ed the same thing. Similar establishments have 
 been founded in Greece, and in some of the South 
 American States ; particularly that formerly under 
 the presidentship of the accomplished and hberal- 
 minded Santander. And even in the heart of Af- 
 rica, the monarch of Benin has invited a Mr. 
 L'Espinat, a schoolmaster of Senegal, to establish 
 in his capital a Norman school of mutual instruc- 
 tion. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 1(}3 
 
 History of these Instilulions. The life-blood of Popular Education. 
 
 Nor are these institutions so recent in their in- 
 ception as many probably imagine. They owe 
 their origin to the celebrated Francke who flourish- 
 ed nearly a century and a half ago. Beside his 
 Orphan Asylum at Halle, stood a seminary for the 
 education of teachers. From this time, education 
 and the educator became objects of general inte- 
 rest throughout Germany ; and since 1730, lectures 
 on school keeping appear to have been universally 
 delivered. Hecker, a pupil of the Frankean disci- 
 pline, founded a school for teachers at Berlin in 
 1740 ; and one of these seminaries in Hanover was 
 established as early as 1750. Normal schools were 
 founded in Bohemia in 1770 ; and before the French 
 revolution similar establishments existed in Usin- 
 gen, Dessan, Cassel, Detmold, Gotha, Oeringen, 
 and Kiel. 
 
 Thus you perceive how early the attention of 
 other nations was directed to this great object of 
 educating teachers, and how steadily and success- 
 fully some of them have pursued it. And who 
 shall say that they have attached an undue import- 
 ance to it ? It is the very life-blood of an efficient 
 system of popular instruction. In vain will you es- 
 tablish schools for the people, unless you place 
 over them competent instructers. The wisest plan 
 without this will be devoid of all vitality. But 
 where will you get such teachers, unless you make 
 
164 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Indispensable to good Teachers. Insisted on by the ablest Writers. 
 
 them ? Can you summon them from the " vasty 
 deep" to do your bidding ? You may call them, 
 but they will not come ; and for the best of rea- 
 sons,— they are not in being. When will the states 
 of this Union, the boasted land of common schools 
 and general intelligence, awake to the importance 
 of this subject, and put forth their energies to sup- 
 ply this deficiency ? There is a torpor in the pub- 
 lic mind in relation to it, for which it is not easy 
 to account, and from the effects of which, if it be 
 not shaken off, forebodings of the most gloomy 
 character mav well be entertained. 
 
 The institution of seminaries for the education 
 of teachers, is no visionary scheme, no wild chi- 
 mera of mine ; their importance, their absolute ne- 
 cessity, is held by you, gentlemen, in common with 
 all other intelligent men, who have examined 
 enough into the matter to form a decisive opinion 
 upon it. Are they not insisted on by some of the 
 ablest writers and most enlightened friends of edu- 
 cation on both sides of the Atlantic ? — by Cousin 
 in France, by Bulwer, Simpson, and Dick in Eng- 
 land, by Bryce in Ireland, and by Woodbridge, 
 Dwight, De Kay, and Dix in our own country ? 
 Mr. Burrowes, I understand, will urge the immedi- 
 ate necessity of establishing one or more in Penn- 
 sylvania, in his forthcoming Annual Report to the 
 Legislature of that state. Their importance has 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 165 
 
 Report in favour of them by Mr. Morgan. Adopted in Philadelphia. 
 
 been repeatedly affirmed in resolutions passed at 
 popular meetings in various parts of the country, 
 and especially by a highly respectable meeting 
 held in the city of Philadelphia, about a twelve- 
 month ago, when an elaborate argument was pre- 
 sented in favour of their establishment in a Report 
 drawn up by the Rev. Gilbert Morgan, and unani- 
 mously adopted. Many of the first Literary Jour- 
 nals of the age have earnestly and ably maintain- 
 ed their indispensable necessity to a high order of 
 popular education ; and among them the Edin- 
 burgh Review, the Foreign Quarterly Review, 
 and the London Quarterly Journal of Education, 
 the American Annals of Education, and others too 
 numerous to mention. I ask your attention to an 
 extract from the 117th Number of the first men- 
 tioned of these journals on the subject. The ex- 
 tract is of some length, but it will repay a careful 
 perusal. At page 27, the writer says : 
 
 " Of all the preliminary steps, then, to the ad- 
 justment of this great question, by far the most im- 
 portant is the appointment of some means for 
 training schoolmasters, not to any set of mechani- 
 cal evolutions merely, but to a knowledge of the 
 principles and practice of their profession, and to 
 the able and enlightened discharge of its duties. 
 The want of some such provision is the great vice 
 of our Scottish system. Faults have thus crept 
 
166 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Extract from the Edinburgh Review. Refelence to Prussia. 
 
 into the practice of our parish schools, which no- 
 thing but the removal of the cause will eradicate. 
 Our readers are aware what consequence the Prus- 
 sian lawgivers attached to this object ; wisely con- 
 sidering that the best plans of teaching are a dead 
 letter, without good and able teachers ; and that to 
 expect good teachers without good training, is to 
 look for a crop without ploughing and sowing. In 
 all their regulations on the subject of the Schulleh- 
 rer seminarien, there is an anxious consideration 
 of whatever can minister to the moral and intellec- 
 tual improvement, and even to the personal com- 
 fort and happiness, of the young teachers, which 
 reminds us more of the tenderness of parental care 
 and admonition, than of the stern and authoritative 
 precepts of law. Every department is enjoined to 
 have one of these seminaries ; the pupils to be ad- 
 mitted between sixteen and eighteen, to the num- 
 ber of from sixty to seventy in each ; to be situa- 
 ted in towns of moderate size, that, on the one 
 hand, they may be preserved from the corruption 
 of very large ones, and, on the other, have access 
 to schools which they can see and may improve 
 in. The course of instruction delivered in these 
 institutions presupposes that of the primary schools. 
 Pupils are admitted, however, with whom it is ad- 
 visable to go back on the primary instruction; 
 and the first of the three years, which form the 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 157 
 
 No such Institutions in the Island of Great Britain. 
 
 complement of attendance for the whole course, is 
 generally spent in revising and giving readier and 
 fuller possession of previous acquirements. If that 
 point, however, is already reached, it shortens the 
 attendance by one year, and the pupil proceeds at 
 once to the business of the second, which is em- 
 ployed in giving him just notions of the philosophy 
 of teaching, the treatment of the young mind, the 
 communication of knowledge, the arrangement of 
 school business, the apparatus and evolutions ne- 
 cessary for arresting attention and husbanding 
 time ; of all, in fine, that pertains to the theory and 
 practice of moral education, intellectual training, 
 and methodical instruction, — technically called 
 Paedagogik, Didactik, and Methodik. The third 
 year is more particularly devoted to the object of 
 reducing to practice, in the schools of the place, 
 and in that which is always attached to the semi- 
 nary, the methods and theory he has been made 
 acquainted with. We refer for other details to our 
 preceding number. It is more to our present pur- 
 pose to remark, that there does not exist, nor ever 
 has existed, in the island of Great Britain, a single 
 institution of this kind, which the Prussian people 
 think so useful, that they have voluntarily gone 
 beyond the number prescribed by law. There 
 were, at the close of 1831, thirtv-three of these 
 
168 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Their Importance urged upon Parliament. 
 
 seminaries in the nnonarchy, which is more than 
 one for each department or circle.* 
 
 " We cannot but think, therefore, that some ef- 
 fort should be made to apply part, at least, of the 
 Parliamentary grant to the purpose of training 
 schoolmasters, if it were only to mark the opinion 
 of Government of the importance and necessity of 
 such establishments ; and to direct public attention 
 to a branch of knowledge which, new and unex- 
 plored as it is amongst us, has long taken its place 
 in the circle of the arts and sciences, and long had 
 its literature and its votaries, in Germany. Any- 
 thing approaching, indeed, to the universal and 
 permanent organisation in that country (for it is by 
 no means confined to Prussia,) it would of course 
 be vain to expect in this, at least for many years 
 to come ; but means of opening up the subject, and 
 commending it to the attention, not of teachers 
 only, and patrons of schools, but of the public ge- 
 nerally, need not be regarded as out of our reach. 
 Might not, for example, a lectureship, or a pro- 
 fessorship of the art of teaching (or, if a name be 
 wanted for the new subject, of Didactics) be ap- 
 pended to one or two of the Scotch universities ; 
 
 There are now more than 60. — Author. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 169 
 
 Lectureships on School- keeping recommended in tlie Scotch Universities. 
 
 and, if such a novelty could not be engrafted on the 
 old establishments of Oxford and Cambridge, tried, 
 at least, in the infant institution of Durham ? A 
 very small endowment, if any, would be wanted, 
 provided Parliament would make it imperative on 
 candidates for vacant schools (beginning at first 
 with those of the better kind only), to produce a 
 certificate of having attended such a course, or 
 even to undergo an examination on the subjects 
 there treated. 
 
 " It is obvious in contemplating such an arrange- 
 ment as this, that the greatest difficulty would be 
 to find fit persons for such an office, — a difficulty 
 which would scarcely, however, last beyond the 
 first appointment. And even with regard to that, 
 we need scarcely look farther than to the burgh 
 and parochial schoolmasters of Scotland. As a 
 body, indeed, they are not beyond being greatly 
 benefited by attendance on such a course as we 
 propose ; but there are men among them, and the 
 number is on the increase, who, to an enthusiastic 
 attachment to their profession, and a large experi- 
 ence of its practical details, add much knowledge 
 of its principles acquired by reading, and reflection, 
 and an almost intuitive perception of what is right 
 in the management of the youthful faculties, and in 
 the manner of imparting instruction. Philosophy 
 and experience must go hand in hand, to fit a man 
 
 15 
 
170 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Necessity of Inspection. Required in Prussia and France. 
 
 for the purpose in view. If such lectureships were 
 instituted in places where there was access also to 
 schools in which the doctrines might be illustrated, 
 the practice exemplified, and the teaching partly 
 conducted by the student, we should accept it as 
 the greatest boon that could be conferred on the 
 parochial education of Scotland. There are few, 
 perhaps none, of the defects that still cling to our 
 parish schools which would not disappear under 
 the wholesome influence of such a measure, car- 
 ried ably and honestly into effect. For example, 
 next to that measure itself, there is nothing 
 more loudly called for to improve our parochial 
 discipline, than a plan of authorised inspection. 
 This, we have seen, is regarded as an essential 
 part of the Prussian and French systems, and is 
 executed by delegates appointed by the Minister 
 of Public Instruction. It seems natural that the 
 proposed lecturers, with assistants, if required, 
 should have this arduous duty devolved upon them. 
 Again, a well arranged succession of school-books 
 is still a desideratum : none would be so likely to 
 supply it well, as men whose lives would be de- 
 voted to the study of their art. But if such a pro- 
 ject shall appear to some, as we are prepared to 
 expect, visionary and impracticable, let strenuous 
 endeavours be at least made to multiply the num- 
 ber and increase the efficiency of the model 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. ni 
 
 Clues, whether Teachers' Seminaries should be Independent Institutions. 
 
 schools we have. There is an endowment for such 
 an institution, called the Harrington School, at 
 Bishop Auckland ; and the Metropolitan schools of 
 both the societies are open, and have been used for 
 such purposes, as far as their means would go. 
 To improve and assist these would be a far more 
 profitable way of expending the grant, than to 
 build schools for the propagation of imperfect me- 
 thods." 
 
 It is a practical question of no small importance 
 whether, if the proposed seminaries are established, 
 they shall exist as independent institutions, or in 
 connexion with and dependency on other institu- 
 tions already in being, — either colleges or acade- 
 mies. Much may be said, with great plausibility 
 and force, on both sides of the question ; especially 
 in favour of their connexion with colleges. Here 
 we have buildings, libraries, lecture rooms, appa- 
 ratus, cabinets, and learned professors, already 
 provided, without any new outlay of money, and 
 nothing seems wanting but pupils to be trained to 
 become the future educators of our children. The 
 Edinburgh Review, in the paragraphs just quoted, 
 advocates the adoption of this plan in Scotland. 
 But, gentlemen, mark the grounds of this advocacy. 
 It recommends the establishment of lectureships on 
 school-keeping in the Scotch universities, not as the 
 best plan in fact for the training of teachers, but as 
 
172 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Separate Organizations preferable. Reasons for tbis Preference. 
 
 probably the most feasible one, under existing cir- 
 cumstances ; that is, as far better than no plan at 
 all for the attainment of this object. 
 
 This is exactly my own opinion in reference to 
 this country ; — I refer here not to the question of 
 feasibility, but to the comparative excellence of the 
 the two systems. No one can doubt that much 
 would be gained to the cause of popular education, 
 by having departments for the training of teachers 
 connected with our colleges, and even with our 
 County Grammar Schools ; but this admission is 
 entirely distinct from any opinion as to whether 
 that system is the best that could be adopted, or 
 even the best that has been proposed. For myself, 
 w^hile I admit that those who differ from me have 
 much that is weighty to urge in favour of their 
 plan, I incline strongly to the belief that separate 
 and independent organizations, though more costly, 
 and even, if you please, less efficient, at first, would, 
 in the end, secure the common object in view far 
 better and more effectually than the appended and 
 subordinate departments, which some worthy and 
 judicious persons seem to desire. 
 
 In the first place, consider the constitutional 
 tendencies of human nature, especially as display- 
 ed by young men in seminaries of education. He 
 is but a novice in the philosophy of observation, 
 who has not seen frequent manifestations of the 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION, 173 
 
 Its Effect on the Character of Teachers better. 
 
 strong disposition which exists in the young to 
 " run" each other, as it is termed. Now the 
 future schoolmasters, being generally young men 
 in indigent circumstances, and belonging to a 
 really subordinate department of the college, would 
 infallibly become the butt for ridicule of the classi- 
 cal students, — the targets, as it were, at which 
 sarcasm would aim her shafts ; shafts not, indeed, 
 pointed with poisoned metals, but still sharp enough 
 to inflict momentary pain, and whose hits would 
 sometimes leave festering wounds behind. No 
 power on earth could prevent this, while human 
 nature and the state of society remain what they 
 are at present. It is easy to foresee what effect 
 such a state of things would produce. It would 
 either sour the minds of the future teachers, and 
 impart a certain ferocity to their temper and dis- 
 position ; or it would beget a mortifying sense of 
 inferiority, destructive of all proper self-respect 
 and personal independence. 
 
 Again: It is admitted, on all hands, that the 
 profession of teaching ought to be as respectable 
 as any other in society ; and that it must become 
 so, before it can be productive of all the benefits, 
 which it is capable of achieving. It is also known, 
 by all who know any thing about the delicate re- 
 lations of cause and effect, how much men's feel- 
 ings and opinions are influenced by names, appear- 
 
 15* 
 
174 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Also on their Respectability and Qualifications. 
 
 ances, and airy nothings, or that which seems 
 little more substantial. Now the respectability of 
 teaching will and must depend somewhat on the 
 respectability of the institutions where instructers 
 are trained. And will any man tell me that mere 
 departmental appendages to colleges and acade- 
 mies can become as respectable in the eyes of the 
 community, as original, independent institutions, 
 wath their own presidents, professors, buildings, 
 libraries, apparatus, and all the other parapherna- 
 lia of educational establishments 1 It is impossible 
 in the nature of things ; and few, I imagine, will 
 maintain that they can. 
 
 J shall content myself, and dismiss the argu- 
 ment, with one further consideration on this point. 
 It is this: The young men who are preparing 
 themselves to be teachers, will not be as well 
 taught, either theoretically or practically, in the 
 proposed college departments, as they would be 
 in the teachers' seminary. You will not, I trust, 
 misunderstand me here. Had I intended to cast 
 any slur upon college instruction, I certainly 
 would not address myself to a college Professor, 
 All that I mean to say, and what I firmly believe, 
 is, that Professors in colleges would not feel the 
 same interest in their lectures and instructions to 
 the pupils of a subordinate department in their re- 
 spective institutions, that would be felt by the Pro- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION 175 
 
 General Principles on which Teachers' Seminaries ought to be founded. 
 
 fessors in a Normal Seminary, where instructions 
 of the kind in question would constitute their sole 
 business. And besides this, the modes of teaching, 
 adapted to common schools and to colleges, are 
 so different, so almost opposite to each other, that 
 it is no disparagement to an eminent and highly 
 successful Professor in a college, to say that he is 
 not the most fit person to instruct those who are 
 to become the teachers of children. Teachers in 
 colleges cannot properly be selected with much 
 reference to their fitness for such a task ; while the 
 very reverse would be true of the Normal school. 
 There such qualification would be all in all. If it 
 be said that one Professor at least in each college 
 would be so chosen; my reply is, that in the 
 teachers' seminaries all would be selected upon 
 this principle. From these premises the conclu- 
 sion seems fairly deducible that the future educa- 
 tors would themselves be better educated in semi- 
 naries with independent organizations, than in 
 departments connected with collegiate institutions. 
 Having thus strenuously urged the necessity of 
 founding teachers' seminaries, and briefly intimated 
 my reasons for preferring a separate organization 
 for them, I will venture upon one or two sugges- 
 tions as to the general principles on which, as it 
 seems to me, they ought to be established. Two 
 leading results should be aimed at, — first, a supply 
 
176 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Two leading Results to be aimed at. 
 
 of good instructers, and then, some security that 
 their services will be given, at least for a few 
 years, to the state in which they are educated. 
 
 The candidate for the profession of teaching, in 
 order to become suitably prepared for his work, 
 must learn two things ; — he must learn to know, 
 and he must learn to teach, two branches of know- 
 ledge quite distinct in their nature, and not by any 
 means always found in union with each other. 
 Every Normal Seminary must propose to itself to 
 communicate both these branches to its pupils. 
 But what ought the pupils to learn to know? The 
 view given in the last chapter of the education 
 proper for the people determines that which would 
 be suitable for their teachers. The wants of the 
 people must be exclusively consulted here. As 
 religious and moral culture was there shown to be 
 the object first in importance in the education of the 
 young, so it should be made of paramount weight 
 in the training of the future educators. Above all 
 things else, they ought to be made familiar with 
 the histories, whether of individuals or of nations, 
 contained in the Bible; with its pure and unequalled 
 code of morality; with the evidences for its divine 
 origin ; and with a general outline of the history 
 of the true religion in all ages and countries. For 
 the rest, they should receive appropriate instruc- 
 tions on all those other sciences which they will 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 177 
 
 Teachers must learn to know and to teach. 
 
 afterwards have to teach themselves. *' The ob- 
 ject of these instructions should be not to nnake 
 the students profound mathematicians, [natural- 
 ists,] philosophers, or divines, but to impart to 
 them a clear and comprehensive viev^^ of all those 
 subjects of a practical nature which may be level 
 to the comprehension of the bulk of mankind, 
 which may present them with delightful objects 
 of contemplation, which may have a bearing on 
 their [own] present and future happiness," and 
 increase their ability to be useful to others. 
 
 Instructions of this kind should be accompanied 
 with others designed to give the learners a know- 
 ledge of, and skill in, the practical part of their 
 future duties. The principles of the juvenile mind, 
 the science of school-government, the means of 
 rendering the pursuit of knowledge attractive to 
 the young, the plan and routine of study, the divi- 
 sion of time, the arrangement and management of 
 classes, the moral treatment of pupils, the punish- 
 ment of offences, the best modes of illustration, and 
 whatever else appertains to the practical instruc- 
 tion and management of a school, should be fully 
 unfolded, and illustrated in minute detail. For 
 this purpose it is indispensable that one or more 
 elementary model-schools should be attached to 
 each teacher's seminary, where the future instruc- 
 tor can have constant opportunities both of seeing 
 
178 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 How can the services of Teachers be secured to the State ? 
 
 his own teachers conduct the class exercises, and 
 of hearing recitations himself under the eye of 
 those who will be able to correct his errors, to 
 foster his excellencies, and to lead him on step by 
 step to that practical acquaintance with the duties 
 of his profession, which will be the pledge of his 
 success and the measure of his usefulness. 
 
 The question of securing the services of these 
 men, after they shall have completed their course 
 of studies, to the state in which they were edu- 
 cated, is perhaps one of greater practical difficul- 
 ty. It is a question on which, I confess, I have 
 not bestowed much thought, but the object con- 
 templated I believe to be entirely attainable. Per- 
 mit me to suggest one method, not as the only, or 
 even the best means of attaining it, but as one 
 which has occurred to my own mind. It is some- 
 what similar to that employed by the General Go- 
 vernment to secure a like object in reference to 
 the cadets educated at West Point. Let the state 
 not charge any of the seminarists more than one 
 half the actual cost of their education, and let her 
 exact from each on entering a written pledge, 
 guarantied by friends, to follow the profession of 
 teaching for a specified number of years, say from 
 three to five, and to exercise it within her limits 
 during that period, — unless, on changing his pur- 
 pose, he first pay back to the state the whole sum 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 179 
 
 Details more difficult. No Models in this Country. 
 
 with interest, expended on his education. Some- 
 thing like this, if I remember right, is required of 
 each pupil on entering the Normal schools of Prus- 
 sia. Let the state add to this a judicious system 
 of annual or triennial rewards, or honorary dis- 
 tinctions to be conferred on such as distinguish 
 themselves by the ability and faithfulness with 
 which they discharge their duties; and the end 
 desired would, I can scarcely doubt, be already 
 well nigh secured. 
 
 On the soundness of these organic principles for 
 teachers' seminaries, I do not entertain the least 
 doubt; but in forming such an institution, an almost 
 endless quantity of details would be requisite, in 
 reference to which, I frankly avow, I should be at 
 great loss in making up an opinion, and I doubt 
 not many others would find themselves in the same 
 uncertainty. How can these doubts and the hesi- 
 tation consequent upon them be removed? In 
 most matters of importance, where it is a question 
 how we shall proceed ourselves, it is usual to con- 
 sult the experience of others. But whither shall 
 we look for the lights of experience on this mo- 
 mentous question ? There is not, as far as I am 
 informed, a single institution of the kind proposed, 
 established by any state in this confederacy. The 
 departments instituted for this purpose by the state 
 of New York, as mere appendages to a few of the 
 
180 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 The iJepanments in New lork no exception to this. 
 
 County Grammar Schools, cannot be considered 
 as forming an exception to this remark. Mr. Dix, 
 the able Superintendent of Common Schools in that 
 state, is not at all satisfied with this plan. He says, 
 " If the foundations of the whole system of public 
 instruction in New York were to be laid over, it 
 would be advisable to create separate seminaries 
 for the education of teachers." There is an insti- 
 tution for the training of teachers in Andover, 
 Mass., under the care of the Rev. S. Hall, the 
 author of several valuable works on education, 
 which is said to have been very useful in its influ- 
 ence on common schools in that state ; but, if I am 
 correctly informed, it is not in any way connected 
 with or dependent on the civil authorities of the 
 commonwealth. And these establishments are, as 
 far as my knowledge ^oes, the extent to which 
 measures have been put in actual operation for 
 the specific object of educating teachers in this 
 country ! 
 
 Whither, then, I ask again, shall we turn our 
 eyes for light to resolve our doubts, and mo- 
 dels that may help us in our hour of need ? To 
 Prussia certainly, where institutions of the kind in 
 question are best organized, have been longest in 
 operation, and have produced the most important 
 results. I have said, and it will not be denied, 
 that it is customary, in important matters, to con- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. igi 
 
 Must consult the Experience of other Nations, especially Prussia. 
 
 suit the experience of others. Is not this done in 
 all the learned professions, and in every pursuit of 
 life ? Are not agents often employed for this pur- 
 pose by individuals, by colleges, by incorporated 
 companies, and even by sovereign states? Suppose, 
 for example, we were to hear of the discovery of 
 some new principle in mechanics, more valuable 
 than any hitherto discovered, or of a new applica- 
 tion of some principle previously known, and to 
 learn that in some European country it had been 
 applied to machinery with complete success; sup- 
 pose, further, that we were desirous of introducing 
 this new principle, or application, as the case might 
 be, into our own manufactories, would we do it 
 upon the mere representation of books, however 
 well written or scientific? No, surely; it is not in 
 this way that men act, where important pecuniary 
 interests are involved. We would pursue a wiser 
 course; we would send out some capable person, 
 commissioned to make a thorough examination, 
 and to bring back, not merely a written report, 
 and plans on paper, but also his own personal 
 knowledge, derived from personal observation. 
 This is, in fact, often done. It is needless to enu- 
 merate cases; they are so common, that the me- 
 mory of every man of the least information will 
 supply them in abundance. 
 
 Let those states, then, that really desire to found 
 
 16 
 
182 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 The sending out of Agents recommended. 
 
 systems of public instruction, fitted to bless the 
 present generation, and worthy of being transmit- 
 ted to posterity, act with the ordinary wisdom of 
 intelligent individuals in undertaking an important 
 enterprise. If they would set themselves intelli- 
 gently about the first duty of a free state — to dif- 
 fuse knowledge and virtue among its citizens — let 
 them commission competent agents to visit the 
 Prussian schools,* who shall be charged to take a 
 general survey of the operation of the whole sys- 
 tem, and to remain long enough at one of the best 
 of the Normal seminaries to become perfectly fami- 
 liar with all its organic principles, its details of 
 arrangement, its modes of intercourse, discipline, 
 and instruction, its examinations, and, in short, 
 with every thing appertaining to it in all its as- 
 pects and relations. After an adequate examina- 
 tion, let them return and spread the result of their 
 inquiries severally before the states by whom they 
 were employed. These will then be prepared to 
 try the experiment of educating teachers under 
 the most favourable circumstances, and if they 
 
 * This has actually been done by Ohio ; a state which, though 
 comparatively young, is already far in advance of many of her 
 elder sisters, in her schools, her internal improvements, her 
 eleemosinary inslilutions, and various other points of her public 
 
 policy. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 183 
 
 Expense no Objection. Cousin's Report Deficient. 
 
 fail, it will not be foi' the reason that, with a 
 penny-wise pound-foolish policy, they groped their 
 way in the dark, because they feared the expense 
 of procuring those lights, which were within their 
 reach. No objection, as it seems to me, could be 
 made by any state to such a procedure, but its 
 expense. Yet what would the expense be ? A few 
 thousand dollars at most — a mere nothing in com- 
 parison with the magnitude of the object to be 
 secured. 
 
 It may, indeed, be urged as a plea to obviate the 
 necessity of the course recommended, that we 
 have the Report of Cousin on the state of Educa- 
 tion in Prussia, and we may be called upon to say 
 what need there is of further light. It is true that 
 the eminent philosopher and educationist referred 
 to, performed the duty assigned him with an abi- 
 lity honourable alike to himself and the French 
 nation ; and his Report is a mine of valuable in- 
 formation concerning Prussia, and of just princi- 
 ples in relation to education in general. But Cou- 
 sin was not long enough in Prussia to become 
 thoroughly conversant with her educational insti- 
 tutions.* His Report presents us with a variety 
 
 * He arrived there on the 5th of June, 1831, and left about 
 the 1st of July of the same year, 
 
184 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Would answer for France, but not adapted to our circumstances. 
 
 of minute details in reference to the economy and 
 regulations of the Normal schools, but he gives us 
 no clear idea of the manner in which the various 
 branches of knowledge are taught to those who 
 are themselves to become the teachers of the 
 primary schools. This, in fact, was hardly neces- 
 sary under the circumstances ; for he was to re- 
 turn, and to superintend in person the establish- 
 ment of the national schools in France. Besides, 
 it should be borne in mind that he wrote for a 
 people differing widely from ours in their manners, 
 customs, institutions, laws, form of government, 
 and the whole structure of society. What the 
 citizens of our several states need for their com- 
 plete satisfaction is an examination by one of 
 themselves, — a man familiar with their institutions 
 and with their habitudes of thought, feeling, and 
 action, who should pursue his investigations into 
 the system with a constant reference to the ques- 
 tion of its availability for their own republican 
 purposes. They require for their guidance not 
 only a Report from such a man, but that deep 
 familiarity with the spirit of the system, and that 
 intimate acquaintance with the minutise of its ar- 
 rangements, and with its special modes of instruc- 
 tion, which can be gained only by personal in- 
 spection, and can never be fully shadowed forth in 
 
HINTS OF POPULAR EDUCATION. 185 
 
 A Report from one of our own Countrymen needed. 
 
 a written Report. Between a mere composition, 
 however eloquent or able, and this full, fresh, 
 breathing knowledge, there is the same difference 
 that there is between a marble statue and a living 
 man. 
 
 16* 
 
186 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 COMPENSATION OF TEACHERS. 
 
 Present inadequate Compensation of Teachers — No Class in tlie 
 Community so poorly rewarded — Wages of Mechanics and 
 other Manual-Labourers as compared with the pay of School- 
 Masters — Compensation of Instructers as indicated by the 
 School-Returns of Massachusetts and New York — Alarming- 
 Nature of the Facts disclosed by these Returns — Manifold 
 Evils of this ill-judged Parsimony — Examination into the 
 Claims of Competent and Faithful Teachers to receive a libe- 
 ral Reward — Justice requires it — Sound Policy requires it — 
 Teachers should be supplied with the Means of maintaining a 
 Family — The Question, what would be a fair average Salary? 
 considered — Inquiry into the Cost of the System recommend- 
 ed — Twenty Millions a Year for the Whole United States — 
 This Sum compared with the Object in View and the Advan- 
 tages that would result from the Attainment of the Object — 
 Whence is the Money to come? — This Question dispassionate- 
 ly answered — First, from the Annual Proceeds arising from 
 the Sale of Public Lands — Secondly, from the Interest of the 
 Surplus Revenue deposited with the States — Thirdly, from the 
 Avails of present and additional Grants of Land for this Pur- 
 pose — These three Sources would give ten Millions a Year — 
 The other ten Millions to be raised by the Districts them- 
 selves — Those who refuse, to receive none of the Public 
 Money — Present Endowments — Bequests — The Nation ex. 
 pends liberally for less important Objects — Florida War — 
 Last War with Great Britain — Astounding Fact in relation to 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 197 
 
 Compensation of Teachers. Very inadequate. 
 
 the Cost of the Wars in which England was concerned be- 
 tween 1688 and 1815 — Enough to Educate the whole World 
 to the End of Time — Poverty and Economy of Nations when 
 Education is to be provided for — Our Parsimony in main- 
 taining Schools a National Disgrace — A more liberal Compen- 
 sation to Schoolmasters essential to an efficient Education of 
 the People — The necessary Expenditure really small in Com- 
 parison with our Resources and the Vastness of the Object to 
 be gained. 
 
 The compensation of teachers is a matter of 
 great moment, and demands especial considera- 
 tion in establishing a general and permanent sys- 
 tem of popular education. There is no class in 
 the community whose services are so poorly re- 
 warded, in proportion to the labour required and 
 the responsibility involved, as those of the primary 
 schoolmaster. The average wages of mechanics 
 is not less than a dollar and a half a day, which 
 would give them an annual income of over four 
 hundred dollars. Labourers on farms, in facto- 
 ries, and at most other occupations, can easily 
 realize two hundred dollars a year, and frequently 
 more. 
 
 How stands the matter with respect to school- 
 masters? The school-returns in Massachusetts 
 and New York, for the year 1834, show the fol- 
 lowing results : in the former of those states the 
 average sum paid for instruction in each school- 
 district for that year, was a hundred and fourteen 
 
188 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Shown by the School Returns of Massachusetts and New York. 
 
 dollars ; in the latter, for the same year, it amount- 
 ed to only seventy-two dollars. Yet the systems 
 of Massachusetts and New York are much vaunt- 
 ed for their excellence, and compared with those 
 of many other states they undoubtedly deserve all 
 the praise that has been bestowed upon them ; con- 
 sidered in themselves, however, they will be found 
 to need great amendment, if not an entire recon- 
 struction, before they can be said to have reached 
 a proper elevation, and are capable of accom- 
 plishing the appropriate objects of such institutions. 
 How is it with respect to the compensation of in- 
 structors in our own state ? According to the best 
 data in my possession for forming an estimate, not 
 more than thirty dollars a year is paid for instruc- 
 tion in each school district ; and this I believe to 
 be rather an over-estimate than otherwise. 
 
 These facts are deeply humiliating: they are 
 more ; they are positively alarming. Is it possible 
 for a government, based avowedly on popular in- 
 telligence, to repose in safety on schools main- 
 tained at so cheap a rate ? The very scavengers, 
 who clean the streets of our cities, are better paid 
 for their fihhy labour,* than men to whom is com- 
 mitted a trust that involves the highest interests of 
 
 Thoy get generally a dollar a day. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 189 
 
 Evils of this Parsimony. Claims of faithful Schoolmasters. 
 
 society. No wonder that ignorant and thriftless 
 adventurers make up the body of our teachers, 
 that our children hate instruction, and that parents 
 frequently complain that their money is thrown 
 away on the common schools. No doubt it is 
 often thrown away, and even worse than that, on 
 men who would consent to labour in such a call- 
 ing for so miserable a pittance. 
 
 The evils of this parsimonious, ill-judged policy 
 are manifold. It bars the doors of our school- 
 houses against competent instructors ; it prevents 
 young men from expending either time or money 
 in preparing themselves to be teachers ; it makes 
 parents indifferent to common schools ; it disgusts 
 the young with the pursuit of knowledge ; it ren- 
 ders the profession of teaching disreputable ; and, 
 worse than all, it produces a paralysis in the pub- 
 lic mind in reference to the whole matter of popu- 
 lar education. 
 
 Let us look a little into the claims of a compe- 
 tetent and faithful schoolmaster to receive a liberal 
 compensation. It is a fair principle, and one that 
 will scarcely be questioned, that men ought, other 
 things being equal, to be rewarded for their work 
 in proportion to the expense of preparation for it, 
 the actual labour required, and the responsibility 
 which it involves. I will not detain you, gentle- 
 men, to expatiate on the time and money that must 
 
190 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Justice and Policy require that they should be well paid. 
 
 be expended in order to become properly qualified 
 for the business of instruction; nor on the self- 
 denial, toil, and wear of nerves which actual ser- 
 vice requires; nor on the consequences which 
 depend upon the manner in which the duties of the 
 profession are performed, — consequences, which 
 extend to every interest of society, and reach 
 through all the relations and destinies of man. 
 These things are undeniable ; and if the principle 
 above stated be a correct one, then the teachers 
 of our common schools ought to receive more for 
 their services than any other class, except the 
 members of the learned professions. Sheer justice, 
 then, would require that they be well paid; sound 
 policy demands the same thing. It is indispensa- 
 ble to good schools ; it is especially requisite in 
 order to secure that great essential element of 
 sound instruction, permanent continuance in the 
 profession of teaching on the part of those engaged 
 in it. Will men continue to exercise a calling for 
 life, which does not supply them with the means 
 of maintaining a family? It cannot be expected, 
 and it ought not to be desired. Men who have 
 studied the philosophy of the infant mind in their 
 own children, and who are accustomed to rule 
 well their own household, will be better qualified 
 both to instruct and to govern a school, than those 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 191 
 
 Five Hundred Dollars a fair average Compensation. 
 
 who are deficient in this domestic experience and 
 sympathy. 
 
 What, then, would be a fair average compensa- 
 tion for well qualified teachers of common schools, 
 — men trained to the profession, and devoted to it 
 for life? Any industrious mechanic, with but a 
 moderate share of skill, can make four hundred 
 hundred dollars a year, and many in fact realize 
 much more than that as the annual proceeds of 
 their labour. Would you give an able school- 
 master less? That were to declare that the con- 
 struction of a steam-engine, the building of a house, 
 or the manufacture of furniture for it, is both a 
 worthier occupation and a more important matter 
 than the education of your children. None, I am 
 aware, will avow such a sentiment ; but if it is 
 practically acted upon, where is the difference? 
 Four hundred dollars, with the use of a comfort- 
 able house, and a few acres of land, is the least 
 average annual salary that ought to be thought of 
 as an adequate compensation for the services of 
 well qualified instructers. This would be equiva- 
 lent to about five hundred dollars a year, and with 
 such an average of remuneration, teachers of ex- 
 traordinary merit would occasionally receive as 
 high as eight, nine, or even ten hundred dollars 
 per annum. These places would be the prizes to 
 stimulate honourable ambition, the rewards of emi- 
 
192 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Cost to the whole United States of an adequate System of Education. 
 
 nent ability and success. This would very soon 
 elevate teaching to the rank of a profession ; make 
 it respectable ; enlist talent and worth in the work 
 of instruction ; and raise our schools to an eleva- 
 tion of excellence, that would fill the measure of 
 our own glory, and command the admiration of 
 the world ; and what is of much more importance, 
 purify our morals, enlarge our enjoyments, cement 
 our union, and give stability to whatever in our 
 institutions is worthy of a patriotic attachment. 
 
 How much would the establishment, by the se- 
 veral members of our confederacy, of systems of 
 public instruction that should carry out these views, 
 cost the whole United States ? The number of free 
 inhabitants at the present time is not less than 
 twelve millions. It is estimated that about one- 
 fourth of the population of a country ought to be 
 in the common elementary schools. In Prussia, 
 Massachusetts, and Connecticut, there is a little 
 less, and in New York a fraction more than one- 
 fourth in these schools. According to this calcu- 
 lation there are three millions of children in the 
 United States, whose education ought to be pro- 
 vided for by the several states. An average of 
 sixty pupils is enough to form a district. This 
 would give fifty thousand districts for the whole 
 Union ; and an average compensation to each 
 teacher of four hundred dollars per year would 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 193 
 
 Twenty millions a year. Not large in comparison with benefits resulting. 
 
 require an annual expenditure of twenty millions 
 of dollars ; or one million six hundred and sixty- 
 six thousand six hundred and sixty-six dollars for 
 every million of inhabitants. 
 
 This appears to be a vast sum, and 1 cannot 
 deny that it is a very large one. Multitudes no 
 doubt will be startled by it, and will be ready to ex- 
 claim, " it is an expenditure that will never be made 
 for that object." But is there any insuperable ob- 
 stacle in the way of it ? Is the country too poor to 
 bear this expenditure ? Is the sum in fact a large 
 one, when you place it by the side of the object in 
 view, and the benefits it would certainly confer 
 upon the nation? Consider what that object is. It 
 is to elevate men to the proper dignity of their na- 
 ture, by cultivating and improving their various 
 powers of miind and body, by teaching them the 
 nature and purposes of these powers, and by im- 
 parting to them as comprehensive a knowledge as 
 possible of the animate and inanimate productions 
 of Nature, and their relations to the human consti- 
 tution. Consider also the benefits that would re- 
 sult from the attainment of this object. The happi- 
 ness of society in its three great subdivisions of 
 moral, mental, and physical pleasures, would be 
 increased in a ratio that can now hardly be con- 
 ceived of; our civil immunities would be establish- 
 ed upon a basis that would ensure their perpetuity ; 
 
 17 
 
194 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 These benefits enumerated. Whence is the money to come. 
 
 our pecuniary interests themselves would be ad- 
 vanced; and an in^ipulse be given to the great 
 cause of human improvement, which would tell 
 upon the history of remote tribes and distant ages. 
 And now, Gentlemen, let me, in all sincerity, put 
 it to you and to all other candid and intelligent 
 men, whether twenty millions a year for the w^hole 
 United States is not a small sum, when placed in 
 juxtaposition with these unspeakable advantages. 
 I feel confident, from such a jury, of a unanimous 
 verdict in my favour. 
 
 But I hear the question pouring from all quar- 
 ters on my ear, whence is this money to come ? 
 This is an important question, and I will endeavour 
 to give it a dispassionate and rational answer. I 
 will not detain you by descanting on how much 
 can be saved from this luxury and that amusement, 
 nor even upon the vast expenses of our very vices, 
 — though more than enough for our purpose might 
 be subtracted from whfit is expended in these ways, 
 with scarcely any sensible diminution of the ag- 
 gregate amount. But I will let all that pass, and 
 leave every man in the quiet enjoyment of such 
 means as he possesses, according to any plan that 
 may chime with his own fancy ; and will proceed 
 at once to something more tangible and positive. 
 I will show you how, by a wise and not over-libe- 
 ral legislation on the part of the General and State 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 195 
 
 First from proceeds of Sales of Public Lands. 
 
 Governments, the sum required might be raised 
 without any tedious delays. 
 
 It may be assumed as a postulate, that the re- 
 ceipts of the United States from the sale of the pub- 
 lic lands, will amount, in a healthy state of the 
 country, to an average of five millions a year. It 
 is the opinion of many of our wisest statesmen, of 
 both political parties, that this fund is the property 
 of the states under the deeds of session by which 
 the lands were ceded to the United States ; and 
 that, therefore, these lands cannot, of right, be con- 
 sidered as a part of the resources of the Union, for 
 general revenue. This question I will not now stop 
 to argue ; nor is it essential for the attainment of 
 our object that we should adopt one side or the 
 other of it. It is enough that it be admitted, as I 
 suppose it will be, universally, that it is competent 
 to the General Government to make what dispo- 
 sition it pleases of the annual avails of these lands, 
 provided it be for an object promotive of the gene- 
 ral welfare. I propose, then, that these lands be 
 set apart as a perpetual fund for the support of com- 
 mon schools, the yearly revenue from which shall 
 be distributed to the states, in the ratio of their free 
 population, for this object exclusively. The sub- 
 traction of this five millions from the general reve- 
 nue would not be felt by an individual being in the 
 whole country, and the appropriation of it in the 
 
196 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Gov. Vance's Opinion. Goes even beyond th*? Author's. 
 
 way proposed would furnish at once one-fourth of 
 the whole sum required for the diffusion of educa- 
 tion, and that of a high order, among all the peo- 
 ple of this Union. 
 
 Since the above paragraph was written, an ex- 
 tract from Governor Vance's recent Message to 
 the legislature of Ohio, has fallen under my no- 
 tice. It was with no ordinary pleasure that I 
 found in it confirmation of the soundness and pro- 
 priety of the suggestions I have ventured to make 
 respecting the proceeds of the public lands, from a 
 statesman, so enlightened, so patriotic, and so so- 
 ber in all his views, as the present Governor of 
 Ohio. Governor Vance goes even a step beyond 
 me, and declares it as his opinion that the fund 
 legally and equitably belongs to this object, and 
 that congress, in giving it that direction, w^ould 
 not, strictly speaking, entitle itself to the praise of 
 generosity, but would have done nothing more 
 than fulfil a sacred trust, the execution of which 
 is called for by every principle of justice. 
 
 " One of the first objects," he says, " that should 
 attract the attention of every statesinan, is the ha- 
 bits, condition, and future prospects of the youth 
 of the state. Through them we may read the fu- 
 ture destiny of the republic, for good or for evil. 
 If we suffer them to grow up in idleness and igno- 
 rance, we must look to the future with forebodings 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 197 
 
 This Fund legally and equitably belongs to this Object. 
 
 of the misery and the degradation that await our 
 descendants. Whilst on the other hand, if we give 
 them industrious habits, guard well their morals, 
 and improve their minds, we may fondly antici- 
 pate that our institutions will be perpetuated, and 
 our descendants grow up and continue in the en- 
 joyment of freedom, independence, and prosperity. 
 
 " The means of attaining this desirable end, 
 must be had through our common schools ; and 
 although much has been done in our own as well 
 as several of our sister states, in the great cause 
 of education and common schools, yet there is still 
 much to be done to perfect the system, so as to 
 bring within the reach of our whole population the 
 means of a thorough common school education. 
 
 *' Tlie fund that legally and equitably belongs to 
 this object^ is the proceeds of the sales of the public 
 lands. By giving it this direction j which is loudly 
 called for by every principle of justice , congress 
 ivould do nothing more than fulfil a sacred trusty 
 ivhilst by loithholding it they incur a heavy respon- 
 sibility to a class of our fellow-citizens, whose ivants 
 should be the first object of their solicitude and at- 
 tention.'^ 
 
 The disposition, here recommended, of the an- 
 nual avails of the public domain, would, as we 
 have already seen, furnish one-fourth of the sum 
 shown to be necessary for the maintenance of 
 
 17* 
 
198 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Second Souica. Interest of the Moneys deposited with the States. 
 
 good popular schools ; but where are the remain- 
 ing three-fourths to come from ? Let us cast about 
 a little to ascertain whether there are any other 
 resources at hand. When the late Deposite Act 
 shall have been carried into full effect, thirty-six 
 millions of dollars will have been distributed to the 
 several states. It is not probable that this money 
 will ever be demanded back ; but, to make as- 
 surance doubly sure, I propose that it be given to 
 the states with whom it is deposited, on the con- 
 dition that the interest of it be devoted for ever to 
 the sole object of improving and maintaining po- 
 pular schools ; and that it be withdrawn from those 
 states that decline this condition. The interest of 
 this fund, allowing a sufficiency of it for the ex- 
 penses of its due management, will be two millions 
 more towards the amount needed. 
 
 Whither shall we look for a third resource to 
 aid us in our work 1 Ten millions of acres of the 
 public lands have already been granted to the 
 different western states for the support of common 
 schools. These lands are now worth on an ave- 
 rage at least three dollars an acre; probably much 
 more. Those of Michigan were sold last summer, 
 during the height of the money pressure, and 
 brought from eight to four hundred and fifty dol- 
 lars per acre, or an average of about twenty dol- 
 4a|s, I propose that an additional ten millions of 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 199 
 
 Appropriations of Lands. Lastly, Moneys raised by Districts. 
 
 acres, of equal value, be given to the other states ; 
 and these grants, when sold, would constitute a 
 fund of at least sixty millions of dollars, the interest 
 on which would be three millions annually, over 
 and above the most liberal allowance for the eX"- 
 pense of managing it. 
 
 We have now ten millions of the twenty we 
 have shown to be requisite. Now let the several 
 states in this Union say to each school district 
 within their respective limits, — We will place two 
 hundred dollars a year in your treasury, provided 
 you will double the sum out of your own funds, 
 — and who can doubt that a great majority of the 
 districts would at once, and thankfully, receive the 
 boon on the condition offered ? And the number 
 that might now refuse to comply with such terms, 
 would, in less than ten years, be dwindled to a 
 mere handful; if, indeed, as is more probable, the 
 non-complying districts were not all, ere that time, 
 numbered with the quiddities of the schoolmen. 
 But it would not be necessary, after a few years, 
 to tax the districts even in the proportion here sup- 
 posed. There are common-school funds in the 
 different states already endowed, which yield an 
 aggreg^ate annual income of nearly or quite a mil- 
 lion of dollars. And let but a sufficient impulse 
 be once given, let the breeze of popular favour set 
 fairly in the direction of national education, and 
 
200 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Present Endowments. Individual Bequests. Florida War. 
 
 liberal-minded individuals will not be wanting, 
 who, by bequests and otherwise, will endow fa- 
 vourite districts with funds sufficient to support 
 their teachers ; and the spectacle even may yet 
 be seen of some future Wills, Girard, or Smith- 
 son thus providing a perpetuity of instruction for 
 all the common schools in a whole township. 
 Hundreds of thousands of dollars may in this way, 
 at no very distant period, be annually realised for 
 the cause in whose behalf we are pleading. Does 
 any one say to me, because I have presented these 
 calculations and propositions, as Festus on a cer- 
 tain occasion said to Paul,— Thou art beside thy- 
 self? — I adopt the noble reply of Paul, and give it 
 in the full confidence that it is a just one, — I am 
 
 NOT MAD, BUT SPEAK FORTH THE WORDS OF TRUTH 
 AND SOBERNESS. 
 
 Does the nation expend grudgingly on other 
 objects, and those of incomparably less import- 
 ance? Has not the war in which she is now en- 
 gaged with a paltry handful of Seminole Indians, 
 already cost her, out of her treasury, over twenty- 
 five millions of dollars, and, indirectly, many mil- 
 lions more ? And will she not expend twice and 
 even thrice that sum, if need be, before she will give 
 over the contest, and succumb to her foe? No one 
 complains of this, if there is no waste in the expen- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 201 
 
 Its Expense. Cost of last War with Great Britain. 
 
 diture. All applaud, however much they may 
 regret it. Did we not expend more than a hundred 
 miilions of dollars in carrying on the last war with 
 Great Britain 1 I was not old enough at that time 
 to have any opinion of my own on the politics of 
 the country; but my father fought in that war, 
 and I have not yet seen cause to honour him the 
 less for it. But, at the same time, it is a fact, that 
 I desire to be distinctly know^n, 1 would have it told 
 in Gath, and published in Askelon, and committed 
 to the four winds to be borne to every corner of 
 the country, that, if an amount, equal to the cost of 
 that war, had been then invested and suffered to 
 accumulate to the present time, it would consti- 
 tute a sum, the bare interest of which would be 
 more than the most ardent^ and, if you please, ex- 
 travagant, friend of education could ask for the 
 maintenance of an adequate number of first-rate 
 popular schools throughout the length and breadth 
 of the land. 
 
 Mr. Dick has shown that the wars in which 
 England was engaged between 1688 and 1815, a 
 period of one hundred and twenty-seven years, 
 cost that nation eleven thousand six hundred and 
 sixty-five millions of dollars. It is reasonable to 
 suppose that the nations against which those wars 
 were waged, expended an equal sum ; and, if so, 
 it gives us a grand total of twenty-three thousand 
 
202 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Vast Expense of Wars of Europe between 1688 and 1815. 
 
 three hundred and thirty millions of dollars as the 
 cost of wars in which Great Britain was concern- 
 ed during that connparatively short period. Let 
 us, however, make every allowance for an over- 
 estimate, and call it twenty thousand millions. 
 How much would this sum do towards educating 
 the world? If w^e estimate the present population 
 of the globe at eight hundred millions, there will 
 be of this number two hundred millions, of an age 
 suitable for attending school. An average of 
 eighty pupils would give two millions five hundred 
 thousand schools for the w^hole world. Twenty 
 thousand millions of dollars divided among these 
 would give each eight thousand. Three thousand 
 dollars of this would be enough to purchase and 
 improve twenty acres of land, to erect a house 
 sufficient to accommodate the school and the 
 teacher's family, and to provide suitable appara- 
 tus for illustrating the simpler principles of chemis- 
 try and experimental philosophy. Five thousand 
 dollars would still remain to each school, which, 
 if invested at an interest of six per cent., would 
 yield three hundred dollars a year. Thus, the wars 
 of Europe, for the brief period of only a hundred 
 and odd years, have cost an amount of money suf- 
 ficient to establish popular schools on the most libe- 
 ral scale throughout the whole world, and to sup- 
 ply them with suitable instruction to the end of 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 203 
 
 An equal sum would educate the whole world to the end of time. 
 
 time ! Truly, when ambition and revenge are to 
 be gratified, when tyranny is to be supported, 
 when the human race is to be slaughtered by mil- 
 hons, when the demon of war is to be unchained, 
 and all the arts of mischief and destruction which 
 he has devised, are to be brought into operation, — 
 there is no want of funds to carry such schemes 
 into effect. But when it is a question of elevating 
 man to his proper place in the scale of mental and 
 moral being, and thus augmenting his happiness 
 beyond all calculation, the eyes of nations are sud- 
 denly opened to behold their poverty, economy be- 
 comes the first of national duties, and Government, 
 from an excessive regard for the people's money, 
 refuses to provide for the people's most important 
 interests. 
 
 How long shall this ill-judged parsimony in the 
 support of schools continue to be practised by us, 
 and be permitted to remain as a blot and stain 
 upon our national escutcheon 1 That a more libe- 
 ral compensation to schoolmasters is essential to 
 an efiicient education of the people, is generally ad- 
 mitted. It has now been shown how this object 
 can be accomplished, and that at a comparatively 
 early date, by the exercise of a moderate share of 
 liberality and clear-sightedness in the General and 
 State Governments. Will the nation authorise the 
 necessary expenditure ?— an expenditure, be it re- 
 
204 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Earnest Appeal for a more liberal Policy on this Matter. 
 
 membered, though large in itself, yet really small in 
 comparison with our resources as a nation; and the 
 vast objects to be secured by it. 'Tis an outlay of 
 money, not for the gratification of ambition, not 
 for the butchery of mankind, not for any of those 
 sinister ends which are so often at the bottom of 
 laws apparently patriotic, — but to elevate the peo- 
 ple and multiply their enjoyments ; to diffuse know- 
 ledge and promote virtue ; to confirm and perpe- 
 tuate liberty ; an outlay, too, which, if there be any 
 force in an argument urged at some length in the 
 first chapter of this work, will be returned more 
 than fourfold into her lap. And force there must be 
 in that argument, unless it can be shown that up to 
 a certain point education may be useful in pro- 
 moting the pecuniary interests of a country, but 
 that, beyond that point, it is not available for the 
 same purpose, — which is an obvious absurdity. 
 And even if it were not, it would be a subject of 
 endless dispute to determine where the separating 
 line was, and as impossible to settle as any frivo- 
 lous question that ever tasked the scholastic acu- 
 men of the dark ages. Let this Nation, then, weigh 
 well her responsibility in this matter, and decide 
 the momentous question whether or not her popu- 
 lar schools shall be of the right stamp, according 
 to an enlightened perception of sound policy, and 
 a just sense of moral obligation. 
 
205 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BOOKS, CABINETS, AND APPARATUS— LOCATION 
 AND ARCHITECTURE OF SCHOOL HOUSES. 
 
 Aversion of Children to Study — Knowledge the natural Food of 
 the Mind — Misdirected Love of Knowledge the Occasion of 
 the Fall of Man — Pleasures of Knowledge exemplified in the 
 Cases of Archimedes and Sir Isaac Newton — Solution of the 
 apparent Contradiction involved in the general Aversion to 
 Study and the innate Love of Knowledge — Attributable to the 
 Want of good School-Books and the Prevalence of bad Me- 
 thods of Instruction — Any other Explanation would impugn 
 the Wisdom and Goodness of God — Decision of Reason on 
 this Point — Testimony of Experience — Various Cases referred 
 to — Letter of a Young Man mentioned by Mr. Combe — 
 Branches of Learning pursued in German Boarding-Schools 
 — The Teacher the Friend of his Pupils — Inspection and 
 Explanation of Machinery — Pedestrian Excursions into the 
 Country — Last several Weeks — Pupils required to write Jour- 
 nals — The Author's own Practice while Principal of the Edge- 
 hill School — Its Results — Improvements made in School-Books 
 of late Years — Higher Improvements needed — Difficulty of 
 preparing Text- Books of a proper Character — ^Requires a high 
 Order of Talent and great Learning and Experience — Gene- 
 ral Principles on which all School-Books should be constructed 
 — Class-Books now in use compared with this Standard — 
 Verbal Instruction instead of real — Philosophy of the Infant 
 Mind should be studied — The Leadings of Nature followed — 
 Lessons on Objects — Biographies— Stories of Real Life — Im- 
 
 18 
 
206 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Aversion of Children to Study. Knowledge the Food of the Mind. 
 
 portanee of Truth — Reading — Books on Natural History and 
 cognate Sciences — Misapprehension guarded against — Mis- 
 cellaneous Library — Of what Classes of Works to be composed 
 — Cabinets of Natural History — Chemical and Philosophical 
 Apparatus — Influence of these Aids — Location and Architec- 
 ture of School-houses — Objects of Importance — Present De- 
 fects — Improvements recommended. 
 
 The books, cabinets, and apparatus suitable for 
 the use of common schools constitute an import- 
 ant question to be considered in forming a general 
 system of education for the people. The aversion 
 of children to study has long been proverbial. Yet 
 knowledge is the natural food of the mind. The 
 soul craves it as instinctively as a new-born infant 
 desires the milk that nourishes its tender frame. 
 It was the desire of knowledge, misdirected and 
 stimulated to an undue degree by an artful master 
 of the human heart, that 
 
 " Brought death into the world, and all our wo, 
 With loss of Eden." 
 
 And the pursuit of knowledge, which always 
 yields a calm satisfaction, when prosecuted upon 
 principles which do not violate the laws of our 
 intellectual being, is sometimes attended with a de- 
 light as intense as that which accompanies a sud- 
 den influx of wealth, a successful canvass for high 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 207 
 
 Pleasures of Knowledge. Cause of Aversion to Studj'. 
 
 office, or a brilliant military victory. Witness the 
 almost frantic exultation of Archimedes on the 
 discovery of a method for testing the purity of the 
 golden crown of Hiero; and the still more remark- 
 able manifestation of delight in the great Newton, 
 when, on verifying his theory of gravitation, as he 
 approached the end of his calculations and saw 
 that his abstract ratiocination was about to be con- 
 firmed by the results of observation, the intensity 
 of this pleasure deprived him of all power over the 
 nerves of motion, and he was obliged to call in the 
 aid of another hand to complete the operation. 
 
 Can the aversion to study alluded to above, and 
 this innate love of knowledge, be reconciled with 
 each other ? The two views would seem to in- 
 volve a palpable contradiction ; yet they are sus- 
 ceptible of a "satisfactory solution. The true rea- 
 son why study is not generally a source of plea- 
 sure to the young will be found, unless I greatly 
 err, in the want of school-books prepared on sound 
 philosophical principles, and the prevalence of 
 those unphilosophical methods of instruction, which 
 have arisen out of the employment of ignorant and 
 inexperienced teachers. The soul cries after know- 
 ledge, and lifts up its voice for understanding ; and 
 its importunities are answered with words, words, 
 words — vox et prcBterea nihil It asks for bread, 
 and it receives air. 
 
208 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Our Faculties adapted to Learning. Decision of Reason. 
 
 Any other explanation, it seems to me, would 
 be an impugning of both the wisdom and good- 
 ness of the Creator. He has implanted in the hu- 
 man soul an ardent thirst for knowledge. He has 
 endowed it with capacities fitted to rise from ob- 
 ject to object, and to range from system to sys- 
 tem, in an endless search after truth, and an eter- 
 nal approximation towards the Source of Truth. 
 He has expressly declared in his Word that it is 
 not good for the soul to be without knowledge ; 
 and, if the principles of analogy, and the earnest 
 longings of the soul itself, nay, if various not ob- 
 scure passages in the Sacred Scriptures, afford 
 ground for a judgment, the pursuit of knowledge, 
 — the everlasting study of the works and ways of 
 God, — will form the principal employment and 
 happiness of eternity. And can these glorious 
 truths be reconciled with the wisdom and benevo- 
 lence of such a mental constitution as necessarily 
 makes the act of learning a mere drudgery and 
 weariness — an object of disgust and hatred 1 Rea- 
 son, speaking from the temple of Truth, where she 
 is the presiding divinity, utters an emphatic nega- 
 tive. The healthy and assured growth of the 
 mind, the mastery over general principles, and 
 the growing ability to apply them successfully in 
 the investigation of truth and the attainment of 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 209 
 
 Testimony of Experience. Various Examples. 
 
 knowledge, cannot but yield a pleasure pure, sa- 
 tisfying, and durable. 
 
 What says Experience ? Her testimony, when 
 fairly given, is equally clear and decisive. Of this 
 any one may easily satisfy himself by entering the 
 school of an instructor who understands the me- 
 chanism of the human mind, and adapts his in- 
 structions to the principles of its structure. I have 
 seen the attention of mere children as steadily 
 fixed, and their interest as warmly excited, in re- 
 ceiving elementary instructions on the dry subject 
 of Latin Grammar, as they could have been in 
 listening to the graphic details of some interesting 
 story. I have seen the attention of a class of over 
 thirty lads kept up for more than an hour, without 
 the least appearance of weariness in a single in- 
 stance, by a recitation in Sallust. There are, in 
 fact, probably few persons who have not beheld 
 how the young, when a skilful instructor has been 
 communicating new truths to them in an intel- 
 ligible manner, have hung upon his hps, and 
 drunk in his words, as the thirsty earth imbibes 
 the refreshing shower. A distinguished mem- 
 ber of the editorial profession informed me that, 
 when engaged in teaching, in his younger days, 
 he had a class of young ladies in Paley's Na- 
 tural Theology. He was unable at first to ex- 
 cite any interest in it; and the class contmued to 
 
 J8* 
 
210 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 German Boarding-schools. Branches taught in them. 
 
 complain of its dryness, till he hit upon the plan of 
 presenting sensible illustrations of its principles, 
 when suddenly Paley became the most popular 
 and fascinating study in the school ; and most even 
 of the other pupils, though dismissed and at liberty 
 to go home, regularly remained to listen to the re- 
 citation on that author. 
 
 A young gentleman, mentioned by Mr. Combe, 
 in his Lectures on Education, in writing from 
 Cassel to his friend in Edinburgh, presents the fol- 
 lowing lively and instructive picture of the Ger- 
 man boarding-schools. "In German boarding- 
 schools," he says, " natural history is a prominent 
 object of pursuit, and the boys are instructed in 
 the outhnes of Zoology, Ornithology, Entomology, 
 and Mineralogy. This, I believe, is a branch of 
 education never taught in seminaries of the same 
 description in Britain ; but it is devoured by the 
 learners on the continent with the utmost avidity. 
 There the teacher is not an object of fear , but the 
 friend of his pupils. He takes them, about once 
 a fortnight, to visit some manufactory in the neigh- 
 bourhood, where they are generally received with 
 kindness, and are conveyed through the whole 
 building by the owners, who seem to have plea- 
 sure in pointing out the uses of the various parts 
 of the machinery, and in explaining to their juve- 
 nile visiters the different operations that are car- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 2n 
 
 Examination of Manufactories. Pedestrian Excursions. 
 
 ried on. Suppose, for example, that an expedition 
 is undertaken to a paper-mill ; the boys begin their 
 scrutiny by inspecting the rags in the condition in 
 which they are at first brought in ; then they are 
 made to remark the processes of cutting them, 
 of forming the paste, of sizing the paper, &c., with 
 the machinery by which all this is executed. On 
 their return, they are required to write out an ac- 
 count of the manufactory, and of the operations 
 performed in it, and of the manufactured article. 
 
 " During the summer months, pedestrian excur- 
 sions are undertaken, extending to a period of per- 
 haps two, three, or four weeks. Every thing worthy 
 of attention is pointed out to the boys as they go 
 along ; and deviations are made on all sides, for 
 the purpose of inspecting every manufactory, old 
 castle, or other remarkable objects in the neigh- 
 bourhood. Minerals, plants, and insects are col- 
 lected as they proceed, and thus they begin early 
 to appreciate and enjoy the beauties of external 
 nature. If they happen to be travelling in the 
 mountainous districts of the Hartz, they descend 
 into the mines, and see the methods of excavatins: 
 the ore, working the shafts, and ventilating and 
 draining the mine. Ascending again to the sur- 
 face, they become acquainted with the machinery 
 by which the minerals are brought up, the pro- 
 cesses of separating the ore from the sulphur, and 
 
212 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 The Effect of these Journeys beneficial on Mind and Body. 
 
 the silver from the lead, and the mode in which 
 the former metal is coined into money. 
 
 " Having become familiar with these operations, 
 the boys next, perhaps, visit the iron works, and 
 here a new scene of gratification is opened up to 
 their faculties. The furnaces, the principles of 
 the different kinds of bellows, the methods of cast- 
 ing the iron and forming the moulds, — every thing, 
 in short, is presented to their senses, and fully ex- 
 pounded to them. In like manner, they are taken 
 to the salt works, and manufactories of glass, 
 porcelain, acids, alkalies, and other chemical bo- 
 dies, with which that part of Germany abounds. 
 If any mineral springs be in the neighbourhood, 
 these are visited, and the nature and properties of 
 the waters explained. In short, no opportunity is 
 neglected, by which additions to their knowledge 
 may be made. This knowledge, too, is of a 
 kind that remains indelibly written on their me- 
 mory, and that is often recalled in after life with 
 pleasure and satisfaction. 
 
 " These journeys not only have a beneficial 
 effect on the mind, but also conduce, in no small 
 degree, to the growth and consolidation of the 
 body. They are performed by short and easy 
 stages so as not to occasion fatigue. 
 
 " On their return home, the boys write an ac- 
 count of their travels, in which they describe the 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 213 
 
 Boys required to write an Account of them. 
 
 nature of the country through which they have 
 passed, and its various productions, minerals, and 
 manufactures. Tliis is corrected and improved 
 by the teacher. The minerals and plants which 
 have been collected, serve at school to illustrate 
 the lessons. The boys also go through a regular 
 course of study, and receive lessons in religion, 
 geography, French, and the elements of geometry. 
 They are taught also the elements of astronomy ; 
 not merely the abstract particulars generally given 
 in courses of geography in Britain, relative to the 
 moon's distance, the diameter and period of revo- 
 lution of the earth, and the like, but also the rela- 
 tive positions of the principal constellations. The 
 figure of cubes, cones, octagons, pyramids, and 
 other geometrical figures, are impressed upon the 
 minds of the junior boys by pieces of wood, cut in 
 the proper shapes. Latin is taught to those who 
 particularly desire it. Poles are erected in the 
 garden for gymnastics, and boys receive every 
 encouragement to take muscular exercise." 
 
 I offer no apology for the length of this ex- 
 tract, because, apart from its interesting statements 
 of fact, it shows how much pleasure the pursuit of 
 knowledge affords, when things are learned instead 
 of words, and the faculties of observation and 
 reflection are called into active exercise ; and be- 
 cause,- — I may perhaps be pardoned the vanity of 
 
214 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 The Author's practice while Principal of the Edgehill School. 
 
 saying, — it confirms the wisdom of what I was 
 myself in the constant habit of doing in my con- 
 duct of the Edgehill School. The same principle 
 was there adopted, though it was not carried out 
 to the full extent described above. The pupils 
 were always, during the summer months, and 
 sometimes in the whiter, taken once or twice on 
 an excursion of fifteen to twenty miles, in the 
 course of which the most interesting objects were 
 sought out, their attention was directed to a minute 
 examination of them, they were required to take 
 notes of their observations, and, on their return, a 
 full description in writing of all they had seen, and 
 of all that had happened, was exacted of each one. 
 Whenever any day of extraordinary interest had 
 passed, such as the Fourth of July, Christmas, 
 New Year's, or the College Commencement, it 
 was usual to require a descriptive composition 
 on it from the whole school. This also was fre- 
 quently the case with respect to the ordinary holi- 
 days, w^hen they had been wandering abroad un- 
 der the care of their teachers. These were found 
 to be among the most improving as well as pleas- 
 ing exercises within the range of school duties. 
 
 Reason and experience, then, unite in declaring 
 that there is nothing in study inherently displeasing 
 and irksome to the young ; but that, on the con- 
 trary, the pursuit of knowledge on principles in 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 215 
 
 The Acquisition of Knowledge may always be a Source of Pleasure. 
 
 harmony with our mental constitution, is eminently 
 fitted to afford pleasure as well as profit. Good 
 class-books, wise modes of conveying truth to the 
 mind, a due intermixture of experiment and sen- 
 sible illustration with study, and the possession by 
 the teacher of copious knowledge, a ready imagi- 
 nation, and a lively interest in and sympathy with 
 his pupils, will always make the school-room a 
 pleasant place, and the acquisition of knowledge 
 a never-failing spring of gratification. 
 
 I am not of the number of those who hold the 
 modern empiricism that learning may be made a 
 mere pastime. It is the law of the Creator that 
 nothing really valuable can be gained without 
 labour. Nor am I. disposed to deny that, with 
 perhaps some changes for the worse, many and 
 important improvements have been made of late 
 years in school-books.* But, notwithstanding this 
 admission, it is clear that this class of works has 
 not hitherto enlisted that amount of learning, that 
 
 * Mr. Emerson's four class-books, designed to teach reading 
 in common schools, are decidedly the best for that purpose that 
 have ever fallen under my notice. They proceed upon the phi- 
 losophical principle of the progressive developement of the infant 
 faculties ; and are really very great improvements on the books 
 formerly in use. 
 
216 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION, 
 
 School-books. High Order of Talent required to write them. 
 
 reach of experience, and that order of talent, which 
 are essential to the production ci such books as 
 are needed. Nothing is easier than to write 
 school-books of a certain kind ; but such as will 
 stand the test of sound criticism, and commend 
 themselves to the judgment of the truly wise, are 
 extremely difficult of execution. To combine the 
 requisite brevity with just that degree of fulness 
 which is necessary to excite and gratify the ar- 
 dent imagination of the young, to be simple with- 
 out degenerating into puerility, to seize upon the 
 most important truths and the fittest mode of 
 communicating them, and, above all, to conduct 
 the learner always by judicious gradations, from 
 the simplest elements of knowledge to the sublime 
 revelations of science and the eternal principles of 
 morality, — these constitute a labour that may well 
 task the powers of the most gifted and best fur- 
 nished minds. 
 
 There are a few general principles which every 
 writer and compiler of class-books for the use of 
 common schools, ought to take for his guide, and 
 of which he should never for a moment lose sight. 
 First, the subject, the thoughts, and the lan- 
 guage, should be level to the comprehension of 
 the persons for whom the works are intended. 
 Secondly, the utmost pains should be taken to im- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 217 
 
 Principles on which to be prepared. Examination of Books now in use. 
 
 part to every portion of them a high moral tone, 
 or at least to exclude every thing in the smallest 
 degree immoral in its tendency. Thirdly, every 
 page, and even every paragraph, ought to be made 
 to convey some useful knowledge. And fourthly, 
 facts alone should be introduced, to the entire ex- 
 clusion of fiction of every kind. 
 
 Will the class-books now^ in use in our common 
 schools stand the test of an examination on these 
 principles'? Alas, it is not many years since that 
 every one of them was violated upon nearly every 
 page of these works; and the old books still main- 
 tain a good portion of the ground against those 
 prepared upon a somewhat improved plan. Books 
 consisting of extracts, elegant in themselves, but 
 altogether incomprehensible to young children, 
 were universally, and still are to a considerable 
 extent, placed in the hands of the learner, as soon 
 as he had achieved a doubtful conquest over the 
 readiug lessons in the spelling-book. Nor was this 
 all, or even the worst. Many of the extracts were 
 immoral in their tendency, inasmuch as they were 
 calculated to feed the sentiments of pride, ambi- 
 tion, and revenge, and to excite an admiration of 
 war, if not a taste for it, by the praises lavished 
 upon the so called heroism of some of the foulest 
 and most wholesale murderers the earth ever pro- 
 duced ; — the Alexanders, the Caesars, and the 
 
 19 
 
218 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Iiistmction is verbal. Should be real. Curiosity of Children. 
 
 Napoleons, who burnt incense only at the shrine 
 of their own ambition, whose best deeds sprung 
 from unworthy motives, who perpetrated, without 
 compunction, or at least without hesitation, the 
 blackest crimes, and who stopped not at the 
 slaughter of millions of human beings, in order 
 that they might gratify the nefarious ambition of 
 treading upon the necks of subjugated empires. 
 
 One of the most crying defects of school-books 
 is, that the instruction they convey is verbal in- 
 stead of real; they deal in words rather than 
 things. No fault can be more fatal to the sohd 
 progress of the pupil, or more likely to give him a 
 distaste for study. It is a sin against nature, a di- 
 rect warfare upon the order of Providence. What 
 do we observe in children, if we take the trouble 
 to watch their infant movements 1 An ardent, an 
 irrepressible thirst for examining every object that 
 falls in their way. The world is all fresh to them, 
 and the feeling of wonder is predominant in their 
 minds. When they get hold of a new thing, they 
 examine it with all their senses, — they look at it, 
 handle it, taste it, smell it, and are not satisfied till 
 after repeated examinations. And many a time 
 has a poor urchin, condemned to pore over un- 
 meaning or incomprehensible sentences for hours 
 together, been flogged for obeying this law^ of his 
 nature, when the master was infinitely more de- 
 serving of chastisement than the scholar. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 219 
 
 Nature to be consulted. Lessons on Objects. Biographies and Real Stories. 
 
 It is the humble business of the educationist to 
 consult nature, and to follow her leadings in train- 
 ing the youthful faculties. Lessons on objects are, 
 therefore, the first that should engage the attention 
 of young learners. An excellent little work under 
 this title has been prepared by Dr. Mayo, of Eng- 
 land, for the use of teachers. These lessons teach 
 things primarily, and words incidentally. But 
 they teach even words more effectively than that 
 system in which word-teaching is the principal 
 and not the accessory, because each word be- 
 comes inseparably associated with the object or 
 quality of which it is the sign, and therefore con- 
 veys a real meaning. Dr. Mayo's work would 
 furnish hints, and in part materials, for the con- 
 struction of an early reading-book in schools. It 
 would be no objection to such a book, that its con- 
 tents had been made familiar to the pupils in a dif- 
 ferent way ; on the contrary, this would be an ad- 
 vantage. Children are always delighted to find 
 in books what they already know. Hence it would 
 be well if the first lessons in reading could always 
 be made to convey ideas before familiar to their 
 minds. 
 
 A small book, consisting of short biographies of 
 men eminent for their virtues and usefulness, and 
 written in a familiar, sprightly style, and of sim- 
 ple moral stories from real life, would be equally 
 entertaining and useful in learning to read. I in- 
 
220 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Importance of Truth. School-books should deal in Facts. Selections. 
 
 sist upon the stories being real occurrences, and 
 upon the biographies being prepared with the 
 most scrupulous regard to accuracy. It is a great 
 advantage, when a teacher can say to a child in 
 putting a new work into his hands, " This book 
 contains nothing that is not true." Truth is to the 
 character what the mainspring is to a watch; it is, 
 by pre-eminence, the hinging virtue. It is, more- 
 over, congenial to the mind. A mind soundly con- 
 stituted, and well disciplined, will always prefer it 
 to fiction, even for the pleasure it affords. And 
 what a preponderating weight is given to it by the 
 consideration that facts, however and whenever 
 obtained, when they are once laid by in the me- 
 mory, are always there, ready to be drawn forth 
 for use, as occasion requires. No opportunity, 
 therefore, should be omitted, no means neglected, 
 for exciting a love of truth in the youthful bosom, 
 and inducing a practical regard for it in all the 
 transactions of subsequent life. As an appropriate 
 companion to this, a volume containing judicious 
 and interesting selections from voyages and travels, 
 would form a valuable work. 
 
 Well written works on natural history, botany, 
 physiology, and anatomy, would be as useful in 
 learning to read as any others, and they would be 
 attended with the additional advantage of convey- 
 ing into the mind a large fund of various and im» 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 221 
 
 Reading-books on Natural History and other Subjects. Works required. 
 
 portant information. They should, however, al- 
 ways be illustrated by real specimens when attain- 
 able, and at all events by good engravings, 
 coloured after nature, and all upon the same 
 scale. 
 
 To carry out the views recommended in the 
 second chapter of this work, several school-books, 
 on entirely new subjects, would have to be written. 
 The four principles already laid down, it is be- 
 lieved, constitute a safe and sufficient code for the 
 preparation of class-books on any subject. 
 
 A word or two may be necessary here in expla- 
 nation, to guard against misapprehension. In what 
 has been said on existing school-books, I trust I 
 have not sinned against justice, nor been wanting 
 in hberality. Recent improvements have been 
 freely admitted, and some of them pointed out and 
 specially commended ; and 1 would now add, more 
 distinctly, that text-books on some subjects are al- 
 ready in existence, as nearly perfect as things hu- 
 man can usually hope to become. Besides text- 
 books on all the subjects taught, skilfully prepared 
 on principles adapted to the juvenile mind, there 
 ought to be in every school, for the use of the mas- 
 ter and scholars, a well selected miscellaneous li- 
 brary of a few hundred volumes, chiefly on the 
 subjects of religion, education, history, biography, 
 ao-riculture, ceconomics, the mechanic arts, and 
 19* 
 
222 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 School Libraries. Cabinets. Philosophical Apparatus. 
 
 the natural sciences. Small cabinets of natural 
 history, including specimens in mineralogy? bota- 
 ny, ornithology, and zoology, might be collected 
 by the teachers and pupils themselves, at little or 
 no expense ; to which additions might be constant- 
 ly making, by means of exchanges with other 
 schools. It is desirable that the principal schools 
 should be gradually furnished with such cheap and 
 simple apparatus as will serve to exhibit the more 
 important principles and interesting phenomena of 
 chemistry and natural philosophy. The influence 
 of these various aids to learning could not be other- 
 wise than beneficial in a variety of respects. They 
 would promote a taste for reading, excite a spirit 
 of inquiry, direct the attention of pupils to things 
 instead of names, blend amusement with instruc- 
 tion, enlarge the circle of thought, and lay a 
 broader foundation for continued self-improvement 
 in subsequent life. 
 
 The location and architecture of school-houses 
 are matters of considerable importance, w-hich 
 have not hitherto received the attention they de- 
 serve. These edifices have generally been con- 
 structed with a principal reference to economy, 
 and with an almost total disregard of taste and con- 
 venience. They are often placed in the bleakest 
 situation in the whole district, without a tree, a 
 flower, or scarcely a blade of grass, to relieve the 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 223 
 
 Location of School-Houses. Architecture. Inattention to these Matters. 
 
 eye, or any thing to protect them from the chilling 
 sweep of the winter's winds, and the glare and heat 
 of the summer's suns. They are almost univer- 
 sally forbidding objects to the sight, and ill-ar- 
 ranged, ill-ventilated, and comfortless as places of 
 study. Now there is utterly a fault in this matter. 
 The scenes and phenomena of external nature — 
 the earth, with its beauties of mountain and valley 
 ■ — of stream and cataract — of beast and bird, and 
 tree and flower, and the boundless heavens, with 
 their ever shining garniture — do not, indeed, exert 
 that power over the mind and heart that the so- 
 ciety of human beings does ; yet their influence is 
 of so much importance that it is not the part of 
 wisdom to overlook it in the education of the 
 young. Such a position, therefore, should be se- 
 lected for the site of a house of education as com- 
 bines the greatest number of natural beauties and 
 advantages possible under the circumstances ; and 
 then the hand of taste should be employed to aug- 
 ment and enrich them, so as to invest the whole 
 place with a sweet and attractive air. The build- 
 ing itself ought to be constructed with a prime re- 
 gard to neatness, convenience, and health; so that 
 there should be nothing unsightly in its aspect — 
 nothing uncomfortable, or prejudicial to health in 
 its arrangements — nothing, in short, repulsive or 
 chilling in its whole appearance and structure. It 
 
224 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 School-Houses should be large enough for School and Master's Farajly, 
 
 is commonly the case, in Prussia, that the same 
 building accommodates both the school and the 
 teacher's family. This is probably the best ar- 
 rangement, and it would be desirable, if possible, 
 gradually to introduce it into our own practice. 
 
225 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GENERA L ORG ANIZATION— OBSTACLES— EN- 
 COURAGEMENTS. 
 
 A g-ood Org-anic Constitution necessary to the efficiency of a sys- 
 tem of Popular Education — A Consideration of the Objects to 
 be accompUshed by it necessary to its Formation — Various 
 Officers essential — Their Services should be remunerated — 
 Organization should be as simple as possible — Superintendent 
 of Public Instruction — County Commissioners — Trustees for 
 Townships — School Inspectors — Their various Duties — Means 
 for securing Regular Attendance of Pupils, and Fidelity in 
 Teachers^ — Diffidence with which these Suggestions are made 
 — Consideration of Obstacles — Indifference of the People — 
 Various Proofs of it — Lagging Legislation — Feebleness of Vo- 
 luntary Associations — Periodicals on Education unsupported 
 — Difficulty of removing this Indifference — Admitted Costli- 
 ness a great Obstacle — Ought not to be — Friends of Educa- 
 tion must be content to labour for remote Results — Obstacles 
 arising from Points in our Social System, and Traits in our 
 National Character — The Lust of Wealth and the Leaven of 
 Agitation hinder Reform — Multiplication and Intermingling 
 of Religious Sects a Hindrance — Remoteness and Impalpable 
 nature of the Benefits to be gained a great Impediment — Our 
 duty to provide for Posterity — This duty plainly written on the 
 Creator's Plan — Pleasure arising from its Performance — En- 
 couragements — Indifference giving way — Much has been al- 
 ready accomplished — Formation of Lyceums — Example of 
 
226 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Organic Constitution of the System. Diversity of Opinion. 
 
 other Countries — Popular Education not a Political Question 
 — The Press unanimous in its Favour — Concluding Appeal to 
 Statesmen and Legislators. 
 
 It will be in vain for any of our State Govern- 
 ments to provide with even princely liberality for 
 the instruction and support of popular schools, and 
 to prescribe the most comprehensive course of 
 study, unless it also gives to its system such an or- 
 ganic constitution as will ensure practical efficien- 
 cy in its operations. What this general organiza- 
 tion should be, is a question on which great diver- 
 sity of opinion is likely to exist. On the other 
 points discussed in these hints, I not only feel as- 
 sured, Gentlemen, that your views will coincide 
 with mine, but I have some confidence that I shall 
 unite the suffi'ages of a majority of the friends of 
 education throughout the country. In reference 
 to the question now to be considered, I entertain 
 no such hope. A variety of plans might be pro- 
 posed, any of which would be efficient for the ob- 
 ject in view. It would, therefore, be presumption, 
 perhaps, in any one to suppose that an organiza- 
 tion according to his particular notions, would be 
 the best possible ; certainly I should esteem it as 
 such in myself. Nevertheless, I have opinions on 
 the subject ; and I should regard my present un- 
 dertaking as incomplete, if I withheld them from 
 the public. My plan is better suited to a small 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 227 
 
 Objects to be accomplished. Services better rendered when paid for. 
 
 State than to a large one, and I frankly avow that 
 I have our own conrimonwealth in my eye, in en- 
 tering upon the exposition of it. 
 
 It is well to understand definitely what objects 
 we propose to accomplish by this organic consti- 
 tution. Clear ideas on this preliminary point will 
 afford us essential aid in our subsequent inquiries. 
 What, then, are the objects contemplated? The 
 great object is the sound and thorough education 
 of all the children in the state. But this must b^ 
 reached through the attainment of subordinate ob- 
 jects. The chief of these are to secure, first, faith- 
 fulness in the teacher; secondly, a regular attend- 
 ance on the part of pupils ; thirdly, fideUty in the 
 disbursement of the public money appropriated to 
 this cause ; and lastly, full returns to the Legisla- 
 ture, showing the annual results of the system 
 adopted. These ends can be attained only through 
 the agency of various state, county, and township 
 officers, and certain statutory enactments. 
 
 Services of every description are, as a general 
 thing, more cheerfully and faithfully rendered, 
 when paid for. Let us start, then, with this pos- 
 tulate, that all the officers employed are to be 
 adequately remunerated, either by salary, or by 
 per diem allowances. We shall find our account 
 in this, in whatever aspect it may be regarded. 
 Let us also lay down another principle for our 
 
228 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Simplicity in the organic Law recommended. Four Classes of Officers. 
 
 guidance, viz. that the machinery of the system 
 should be characterized by as much simpHcity as 
 is compatible with its efficient action. That of 
 Prussia is too complex, too much intertwisted, 
 too military. One could easily infer from its mul- 
 tiform structure that the country where it prevails 
 is familiar with standing armies. 
 
 I propose the appointment of four classes of 
 officers, viz. a Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
 tion, a Commissioner of Common Schools for 
 each county, three Trustees for every township, 
 and two Inspectors for each school. The Super- 
 intendent to be chosen by the legislature for the 
 term of three or five years, and to receive a liberal 
 salary, both for the purpose of giving respectability 
 to the office, and of securing in it the services of 
 men of talent and character. A term of years is 
 proposed, to guard against the consequences that 
 might result from the fluctuations of political par- 
 ties. Education has nothing to do directly with 
 politics, and important offices connected with it 
 ought not to be made dependent on the breath of 
 political favour or enmity. 
 
 The School Inspectors to be chosen by ballot 
 in each district, the Trustees for townships to be 
 elected as the other township officers are, and the 
 Commissioner for each county to be chosen by 
 ballot by all the Trustees in the county, assembled 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 229 
 
 School Inspectors. Township Trustees. County Commissioners. 
 
 for that purpose, and always selecting one of their 
 own number. All these officers to be paid so 
 much per day for their time while actually en- 
 gaged in the public service. 
 
 It should be made the duty of the Inspectors, 
 from the performance of which nothing should 
 ever be permitted to deter them, to visit and ex- 
 amine thoroughly the schools in their respective 
 districts, at least once a month, and receive from 
 the master the monthly report of attendance, be- 
 haviour, and progress of the pupils. In like man- 
 ner it should be made the duty of the Trustees to 
 visit and examine all the schools in their respective 
 townships at least once a quarter, and to meet as 
 often as that for the purpose of receiving reports 
 from the School Inspectors. The Trustees in their 
 turn to report to the County Commissioners. 
 
 The County Commissioners to constitute a Board 
 of Education, to convene semi-annually, of which 
 the Superintendent should"be, ex officio, President. 
 Each Commissioner to present at these meetings 
 a report for his own county, to be passed into the 
 hands of the Superintendent. It should be made 
 the duty of this Board to examine candidates 
 for the situation of teachers, and to consult on 
 the general interests of education throughout the 
 state* 
 
 The duties of the Superintendent of Public In- 
 
 20 
 
230 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Superintendent. Punctual Attendance of Pupils. Fidelity of Teachers. 
 
 struction would be multifarious and responsible, the 
 least of which would be his annual reports to the 
 body by whom he was elected. He would be re- 
 quired to take a general oversight of all the 
 schools, to visit once a year every county in the 
 state, to be instant, in season and out of season, in 
 his efforts to keep alive and increase the interest 
 of the people, and to labour unremittingly to dis- 
 seminate information and to infuse a spirit of ac- 
 tivity into the whole system. In short, he must 
 be the heart of the system, whence a genial cur- 
 rent of life and vigour shall flow to the most dis- 
 tant members. 
 
 To insure the punctual and regular attendance 
 of the pupils, the principles both of hope and of 
 fear might perhaps be appealed to with propriety. 
 Some slight bounty might be offered to the child 
 who should not miss a day from school throughout 
 the year, except from sickness; and the parent 
 might forfeit his title to any benefit from the dis- 
 tribution of the public money, by keeping his child 
 at home beyond a specified proportion of the whole 
 time. 
 
 For the encouragement of teachers, and to in- 
 sure their fidelity and continued self-improvement, 
 biennial or triennial examinations might be held, 
 and some distinctions conferred upon those who 
 are most deserving. 
 
 I am prepared to have some of these sugges- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 231 
 
 This Plan may not be the best. An efficient Organization practicable. 
 
 lions received and treated as visionary, and others 
 rejected as inapracticable. If they are all dis- 
 carded, and something better proposed in their 
 stead, I pledge myself that I will abandon them 
 Vi^ithout regret, and be among the first to hail the 
 substitute with rejoicing. The organization pro- 
 posed would necessarily require some modifica- 
 tions, if adopted in its general principles in a large 
 state ; and the establishment and successful opera- 
 tion of teachers' seminaries would also make some 
 changes necessary. 
 
 These views are submitted, not dogmatically, 
 but with unfeigned diffidence. Where there is 
 so much room for difference of opinion, there is 
 greater latitude of error, and the probabilities in 
 favour of the correctness of any given opinions are 
 diminished. The proper adjustment and balancing 
 of all the parts of a general system of popular edu- 
 cation, so as to secure complete efficiency, is a 
 work requiring deep wisdom ; yet experience has 
 shown that it is altogether within the range of pos- 
 sibilities. Let the attempt but be made in earnest 
 by any state, and prosecuted with ardour, and it 
 requires not the word of a prophet to foretell that it 
 will be completely successful, and that its success 
 will be attended with consequences good in them- 
 selves, and most benign in their influence. 
 
 Is there any probability that such a system of 
 
232 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Will such a Bysterri bo adopted ? First Obstacle llie People's Indifference. 
 
 popular education as I have attempted to trace out 
 in the foregoing pages, or any thing approaching 
 to it, will ever be adopted by the several states of 
 our confederacy 'i It naust be confessed that the 
 prospect is not of the most cheering kind ; and yet 
 there are encouragements enough to keep out de- 
 spair, and even to authorize the hope that the day 
 will come, when this consummation shall be real- 
 ized. The vast importance of a comprehensive 
 education of the people, and the indispensable ne- 
 cessity of improved methods of instruction, are 
 generally admitted. Why, then, are not schools 
 universally established upon a proper basis, and 
 maintained with a liberality commensurate with 
 their acknowledged importance? To consider the 
 obstacles in the way of so desirable a result, and 
 the encouragements to hope that it may ultimately 
 be secured, will be the object of the concluding 
 portion of this work. 
 
 1. The difficulty that first rises to the thoughts in 
 considering this subject, and the one perhaps of 
 most formidable import, though negative in its 
 character, is tiic indiUcronce of the people in rela- 
 tion to it. This indillbrcnce is deep-seated, and 
 exists to an almost incredible extent. 
 
 Where is the state within the limits of this na- 
 tion, whose citizens are sufficiently alive to the 
 value of education, to demandof their law-makers a 
 
HINTS ON POPIIT-AR ICDUCATION. 2S3 
 
 Various Proofs of tliis Indillbrencc. Voliinliiry AHSociiitioiiH IniiRuiMli. 
 
 system adequate to their wants? Not one such 
 can be named. lOven in Massaciiusetts, the best 
 educated state in the union, the sum annually ex- 
 pended on common schools is, as you have seen, 
 only a little more than one-fourth of what has been 
 siiown to be indispensable to the support of such 
 schools as we need. In Pennsylvania, where a 
 system of common schools, devised with wisdom, 
 and liighly benoficiMl in its results, has been for 
 several years in oj)cration, more thnn one-fourth 
 of the people still refuse to accede to i1. In the 
 legislature of New Jersey, at its last session, only 
 some half dozen votes could be obtained in favour 
 of a proposition to imj)rove our common schools. 
 
 What is the usual history of those voluntary so- 
 cieties which are from time to time formed for the 
 promotion of popular education ? They arc got 
 up with considerable spirit ; they give promise of 
 salutary fruits; they languish for a few years 
 through a sickly and ever-waning existence; and 
 then sink beneath the waves of oblivion, to be fol- 
 lowed by others destined to a like fate. The Ame- 
 rican Lyceum might be made a mighty instru- 
 ment of good to this cause ; yet it is compara- 
 tively inelllcient for want of that support which a 
 moderate share of general interest in education 
 could not fail to give it. 
 
 Do periodicals on education meet with any bet- 
 20* 
 
234 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Failure of Periodicals on Education. Indifference its Cause. 
 
 ter fate? Their career is still more brief and in- 
 glorious. Within the short space of seven years, 
 no less than seven works of this kind have been 
 started, which have scarcely survived their birth ; 
 while the eighth, the Annals of Education, has, till 
 within a year or two past, struggled on through a 
 feeble and uncertain existence. The Common 
 School Assistant, a monthly newspaper, edited by 
 Mr. J. Orville Taylor, has been published for about 
 two years, and is said to have an extensive circu- 
 lation. Beyond these two, I know of none pub- 
 lished at the present time in any part of the coun- 
 try. Is this the way in which the people of the 
 United States display their interest in a given 
 subject ? No, indeed. Political papers are circu- 
 lated by thousands ; religious periodicals by hun- 
 dreds; law, medical, and literary journals, tem- 
 perance, agricultural, and abolition papers, each 
 by fifties or by dozens. Periodicals devoted to 
 education alone, of all others, perish and are for- 
 gotten after a few months' struggle for life, and 
 the loss of some hundreds of dollars out of the 
 pockets of their conductors. 
 
 But why multiply proofs of the prevalent indif- 
 ference to education? Alas ! their name is legion. 
 He that runs may read them. Even the interest 
 of those who affect to deplore the want of it in 
 others is often limited to an occasional sigh, a few 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 335 
 
 How can this Indifference be removed ? Tendencies opposed to it. 
 
 newspaper articles, or an address now and then at 
 a popular meeting. This indifference is the main 
 obstacle that lies in the way of an efficient reform. 
 But the problem is how to remove it. Archbishop 
 Whately, in his Lectures on Political Economy, 
 argues that a barbarous nation has no tendency 
 to civilize itself. Reasoning upon the same prin- 
 ciple, the London Quarterly Review endeavours 
 to show that an uneducated society has no natural 
 tendency to educate itself; that the impulse must 
 come from above ; from those who have created 
 the want that the others do not feel. It says truly 
 that it is impossible for persons of uncultivated and 
 torpid minds to know to w^hat an extent education 
 exalts, enlarges, and stimulates the understanding; 
 how much it raises, refines, and strengthens the 
 moral feelings; nor how incalculably it increases 
 the happiness of its possessor, and tends to make 
 him both independent of the world, and a safe and 
 useful member of society. Hence such persons 
 will never seek it self-moved. They must be acted 
 upon from without, — by those who are impressed 
 with a sense of its manifold advantages ; who see 
 in it the only means of promoting genuine civiliza- 
 tion ; of instilling correct principles and salutary 
 habits ; of implanting a love of industry, temper- 
 ance, and regularity ; and of stifling whatever is 
 repugnant to law, order, and morality. 
 
236 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Expense of the System an Obstacle. Money could not be better appropriated. 
 
 2. The greatness of the admitted and even avow- 
 ed expense of an efficient national education is an 
 obstacle of no small magnitude in the way of its 
 accomplishment. There is nothing of which our 
 legislators generally are so much afraid as of 
 voting away money even in small sums, and for 
 the best and wisest purposes ; much less will they 
 be willing, till instructed in a voice of authority by 
 the people themselves, to appropriate it by millions 
 for the maintenance of schools. How can the 
 people be influenced to move in this matter effect- 
 ually 1 Nothing will do it but the most vigorous 
 and persevering efforts on the part of those whose 
 views are in advance of the times, to disseminate 
 light, to rectify error, and to open the eyes of the 
 community to the perils of ignorance and the 
 blessings of knowledge. 
 
 It would be a noble and even a sublime specta- 
 cle to see a great nation, that has already set an 
 example to the world of rational liberty and so- 
 ber self-government, following up what she has 
 achieved bv that which would confirm it to the 
 latest posterity, — by a charter of perpetuity, in the 
 endowment of popular schools, on a scale worthy 
 of herself, and corresponding with their intrinsic 
 importance. And to what better, wiser, or more 
 useful purpose could the resources indicated in the 
 fourth chapter of these Hints be devoted ? Will 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 237 
 
 No Price too great for Education. We must persevere in the Work. 
 
 it be said that the expenditure is enormous ? No 
 price is great which is not disproportionate to the 
 value of the article purchased. And if we take 
 this principle as our guide, we must admit that four 
 times the sum asked would be well expended, if so 
 much were necessary, to secure the end in view. 
 Is it too much to hope that the nation may be 
 brought to the point of incurring the needed ex- 
 pense? To expect such a result immediately, 
 would argue either the blindness of ignorance, or 
 the weakness of the enthusiast. But the friends 
 of education must be content to labour for a re- 
 mote good. They must fix their aims high, and 
 proclaim them to the world ; and then buckle on 
 the armour of firm resolve and determined perse- 
 verance. Let them plant themselves upon the im- 
 pregnable and lofty principle, that truth is great and 
 will prevail. Let there be no concealment, no dis- 
 guise, no deceptive and honied insinuation. " The 
 movements and workings of the social system have 
 become too deep and potent, to leave room for ope- 
 rations of a slender, ambiguous, or insinuating kind. 
 We have come to no gentle mood of the world's 
 history. This is no hour of leisure and facility and 
 soft persuasion. He who dares not speak expli» 
 citly and boldly, had better not speak at all. 
 Nothing will now avail the cause of truth but the 
 courage which truth ought to inspire." If the 
 
238 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Our Social System in some respects adverse in its Influence. 
 
 necessary boldness be coupled with due discre- 
 tion, and sustained by a spirit that shrinks not, 
 wavers not, and is not discouraged either by de- 
 lays or opposition, it is neither blind, nor weak, 
 nor visionary, to indulge the hope that such ex- 
 ertions in behalf of our cause will in the end 
 prevail. 
 
 3. There are points in our social system, and 
 some traits in our national character, which stand 
 in the way of the gigantic scheme we are advo- 
 cating. The paths of ambition are here open to 
 all. The obscure of to-day may be the illustrious 
 of to-morrow ; and a single false step in politics 
 often leads over a precipice, at whose base present 
 realizations and reasonable hopes may be seen 
 in scattered and irrecoverable fragments. This 
 makes the ambitious aspirant for pubhc favour 
 timid, shrinking, and over-cautious as to every one 
 of his public acts. It makes those who, by their 
 talents, learning, and commanding position, are 
 capable of controlling public opinion, the mere 
 echoes, nay, almost the slaves, of that very opinion, 
 which they ought rather to enlighten and rectify. 
 This, it will be seen at once, is an adverse in- 
 fluence of tremendous power, especially if it be 
 admitted that there is no inherent tendency in an 
 uneducated community to educate itself, and that 
 the first impulse to that end must come from 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 239 
 
 Several Traits in our national Character opposed to Reform. 
 
 abroad, that is, for the most part, from those very- 
 persons, who are afraid to touch the ark from a 
 morbid dread of the loss of popularity. 
 
 The lust of wealth, the frenzy of enterprise, 
 and the leaven of agitation which has diffused it- 
 self through almost the whole mass of society, are 
 points each in our national character whose in- 
 fluence, as far as it goes, is opposed to a thorough 
 reform of our existing systems of popular instruc- 
 tion. It is not necessary to go into any lengthened 
 analysis of these causes, and to show that their 
 effect is essentially such as it is here stated to be; 
 their operation lies upon the surface, and may be 
 know^n and read of all men. When the sacra auri 
 fames — the accursed hunger of gold — has become, 
 in the majority of minds, a craving that knows no 
 intermission ; when steamboats, railroads, and 
 canals, the purchase and sale of lands, the eager 
 pursuits of commerce and manufactures, and the 
 thousand other modes of rapid accumulation which 
 the ingenuity of avarice has devised, form the 
 themes that occupy men's thoughts by night and 
 by day; and when society is agitated almost to its 
 foundations by innumerable exciting causes, — it is 
 easy to perceive that it is not the most favourable 
 time for those calm investigations and steady ex- 
 ertions which are essential to the solid improve- 
 ments in education for which we are contending. 
 
240 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION 
 
 Difference in religious Opinion another Obstacle. 
 
 4. The multiplication and intermingling of reli- 
 gious sects in this country constitute another and 
 not inconsiderable hindrance to the realization of 
 our wishes on this subject. It has already been 
 shown that popular education, in order to be of 
 any substantial value, must teach the evidences on 
 which the religion of the Bible rests its claim to be 
 considered a communication from Heaven ; that 
 it must communicate what is capital in its doc- 
 trines, as well as the main facts of its history; and 
 that it must instil into its pupils the principles and 
 habits of practical godliness. It is admitted that 
 to harmonize the elements of discord so as effec- 
 tually to secure this indispensable condition with- 
 out calling into activity sectarian prejudices and 
 jealousies, is a labour of deep practical wisdom. 
 But that it is a work altogether impracticable, can 
 hardly be supposed; since it is apparently essential 
 to the carrying forward of the great designs of 
 Providence, and the introduction of that glorious 
 period, the brightest in the world's history, the 
 theme of the most impassioned strains of prophecy 
 and poetry, when the universal diffusion of know- 
 ledge AND HOLINESS shall rcstoro to the moral 
 world the lost image of its Maker, and bring back, 
 not merely the remembrance, but the enjoyment, 
 of the peace and beauty of Eden. 
 
 5. The last in that ill-omened train of impedi- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 241 
 
 Remoteness of the Benefits to be gained a great Impediment. 
 
 ments to which reference will now be made is found 
 in the remoteness and the impalpable nature of the 
 benefits to be gained by the adoption of the course 
 recommended. Mr. Simpson, in his work on the 
 Necessity of Popular Education, has placed the 
 fallacy and the selfishness of this plea in so strong 
 a light, that I must crave indulgence for asking 
 your attention to a somewhat lengthened extract. 
 " If it were true, as it is not, that we of the pre- 
 sent generation shall derive no benefit from the 
 progress, nay, even from the commencement of 
 this moral revolution, we should be bound, never- 
 theless, to effect it, when in the nature of things it 
 can only be accomplished by one generation, to 
 be fully enjoyed by another. It is a low morahty 
 which would recklessly throw our burdens upon 
 our successors, to work out their deliverance from 
 these as they may, but refuse the slightest sacri- 
 fice for their benefit. A succeeding generation 
 owes its existence to the present, and has a claim, 
 in justice as well as benevolence, to inherit all our 
 accumulations of wealth and knowledge, and a 
 right to reproach us with a great sin in the Crea- 
 tor's sight, if we have selfishly shrunk from the 
 duty which he has inscribed on his great plan, that 
 one generation shall often sow the seed, that ano- 
 ther may gather the harvest. This duty extends 
 from the planting of a tree, to the enlightening of 
 
 21 
 
242 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Our Obligations to Posterity. Self-esteem a Motive to Exertion. 
 
 a people. To decline our share in the naeans of 
 the progression of the human race, when we have 
 arrived at light enough to show us the way, would 
 be a moral prostration which would stigmatise an 
 age. 
 
 " A legitimate self-esteem is well entitled here to 
 supply its share of motive, and make us proud that, 
 in the course of Providence, it has fallen to our 
 times to do this great thing ; to preside over the 
 culture, assured that our children, and our chil- 
 dren's children will gather the increase. Yes, 
 there are minds of glorious loftiness, — minds that 
 would do a deed to bless mankind, and be content 
 to die. Lavoisier waited the moment when a great 
 truth should be revealed in the results of a scienti- 
 fic process, in which he was intensely engaged, 
 when they came to lead him to the scaffold. He 
 entreated to have three days granted him to crown 
 the great work of the new chemistry. Robespierre 
 refused an hour, and, like the caitiff who struck 
 down Archimedes, murdered Lavoisier. Heroism 
 like this is not now before us ; but I trust there are 
 many of my countrymen, who, if it were pro- 
 pounded to them, whether their satisfaction w^ould 
 be the greater to aid in effecting the glorious 
 scheme of education, or to live in another genera- 
 tion, and passively taste its fruits, would choose the 
 glory of the enterprise, rather than the sweets of 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 243 
 
 Consideration of Encouragements. Popular Intlifterence yielding. 
 
 the result ; and would avow that there is an expan- 
 sion of feeling, a dilation of heart, a lofty ambition 
 even, in being permitted to be the actors in a work 
 to have such consequences in another generation, 
 which gives them to live, as it were, in both pe- 
 riods, to enjoy alike the springtide and the autumn, 
 and, like Abraham, to see the day afar off and be 
 glad." 
 
 But amid all that is gloomy in our prospects, 
 and disheartening in the obstacles that oppose 
 themselves to reform, there are not wanting 
 sources of consolation and hope. Nay, the en- 
 couragements, when calmly weighed, wi!l be 
 found to preponderate over considerations of an 
 opposite kind. These encouragements I shall ra- 
 ther advert to than discuss; leaving it to you, and 
 to others who may honour my work with a peru- 
 sal, to follow out the topics suggested with such 
 reflections as will naturally arise. 
 
 1. The indifference alluded to as among the 
 most formidable obstacles to improved systems of 
 popular education, is already giving way to a 
 lively, and active, and general interest in the sub- 
 ject. Great inroads have been made upon it with- 
 in the last few years ; it has been gradually, but 
 surely melting away before the efforts to remove 
 it, like icebergs beneath the influence of southern 
 skies ; and the impulse has been already given, 
 
244 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Proofs of this. Education a frequent Topic of Conversation. 
 
 which, if no untoward events occur to impede 
 the movement, will certainly end in its entire de- 
 molition, and the substitution in its place of en- 
 lightened zeal and active exertions in the great 
 body of the people. We have had abundant proof 
 of this in our own state, within the few weeks last 
 past, in the numerous and spirited meetings held 
 in all parts of our commonwealth for the purpose 
 of petitioning the legislature for improvements in 
 our common school system. The importance of 
 a thorough education of all classes in the commu- 
 nity, and the necessity of reforming and extending 
 our operations for that end, are becoming frequent 
 topics of conversation in those circles and among 
 those individuals, where we look for the first move- 
 ments in any meditated amelioration of the social 
 system. Nor are these topics confined to the con- 
 versation of the classes here alluded to; they have 
 spread far beyond them. Multitudes of the labour- 
 ing classes feel and proclaim the necessity of a 
 better education for their children. Would that 
 they would rise in their might, and demand it of 
 their rulers. On the whole, it must be confessed 
 and deplored, that "there remains much land to 
 be possessed ;" but Jordan has been passed, the 
 walls of Jericho are prostrate, and we are already 
 advancing into the heart of the enemy's country. 
 Let our watchword be Onward ; let our course 
 be marked by prudence ; let our vigilance and our 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 245 
 
 What has been akeacly accomplished a Source of Hope. 
 
 labour be unremitted; and triumph will certainly 
 perch upon our banner; and our children and chil- 
 dren's children shall reap the harvest we have 
 sown. 
 
 2. Much has been already accomplished in va- 
 rious sections of the country. To enter into par- 
 ticulars in illustration of this point would require 
 more space than can be devoted to that purpose, 
 though the illustration could not fail to be both in- 
 teresting and instructive. I can only refer, there- 
 fore, in general terms, to what has been achieved 
 in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
 Michigan, and several other western states. Go- 
 vernors Marcy, Wolf, Ritner, Vance, Mason, 
 and others, have imposed a heavy debt of grati- 
 tude upon their fellow-citizens, by their zeal in re- 
 commending, and their active exertions in urging 
 forward, the improvements in their respective 
 states ; and they have in this way gained more 
 true glory, and done more lasting service to their 
 country, than by a long career of military triumphs. 
 Long may such men live to infuse their own spirit 
 into souls of heavier mould, and to roll along the 
 wheels on which are borne the political safety, the 
 moral elevation, and the true happiness, of the hu- 
 man race! 
 
 There are some organizations narrower in their 
 operations than the entire territory of a state, 
 
 21 * 
 
246 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Formation of numerous Lyceums affords a twofold Encouragement. 
 
 which deserve to be mentioned as among the en- 
 couraging signs of the times. Prominent among 
 these are the school systems of the cities of Boston, 
 New York, and Philadelphia. They have already 
 been the source of uncounted blessings to hundreds 
 of thousands of human beings ; they are now es- 
 tablished upon a firm basis, perfected by the experi- 
 ence of many years, and conducted with enlight- 
 ened zeal and liberality ; and may justly be 
 regarded as among the " proudest monuments any 
 people ever raised to the cause of learning, truth 
 and virtue." 
 
 3. The formation and flourishing condition of 
 numerous lyceums afford to the friends of educa- 
 tion encouragement of a twofold character ; they 
 are indices of what has already been done — of the 
 extent to which an interest in the subject now pre- 
 vails ; and they are pledges of good things to come. 
 They are both the effect and the cause of an in- 
 crease of zeal and activity in the cause of educa- 
 tion — reform. 
 
 4. The example of other countries, the progress 
 they have made in establishing and perfecting 
 sound systems of primary education, are well fitted 
 to cheer us on in the w^ork. " What has been done 
 can be done," is a maxim which has grown old, 
 because it is true. It seems to have been in most 
 things silently acted upon by the United States, as 
 a nation. It is rare that they allow themselves to 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 247 
 
 The Example and Achievements of other Nations encouraging. 
 
 be outstripped by other countries in any thing, es- 
 pecially if it be a project having somewhat of tan- 
 gible utility in it. It were well if this emulation, 
 which seems natural to us as a people, could be 
 extended to education. There is much in those 
 systems of public instruction on the continent of 
 Europe, to which reference has been repeatedly 
 made, in the progress of this work, which might 
 be advantageously copied by us. " Germany is 
 our teacher, not merely in the matured national 
 plan of Prussia so often referred to, but very gene- 
 rally over the empire." France, too, is in some 
 respects our teacher ; certainly in the zeal with 
 which she entered upon the labour of reform in 
 the establishment of a national system, in the spi- 
 rit with which she prosecutes the work, and the 
 liberality with which she expends for the support 
 and perfection of her popular schools. 
 
 5. It is an encouraging circumstance that po- 
 pular education is not made a political question 
 among us. It is a defect in our social system, a 
 result which seems inseparable from a national 
 organization such as ours, that almost every prac- 
 tical question of importance, whether or not it has 
 any inherent political bearing, mixes itself up with 
 politics, and the success or failure of propositions 
 growing out of it is made to hinge on political 
 considerations. This appears to be the price of 
 
248 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Education not a political Q,uesti()n. Great encouragement in this. 
 
 liberty, the penalty of self-government. How far 
 the proper education of every individual in the 
 community would go towards diminishing this 
 price and removing the penalty, our children will 
 perhaps be better able to judge than ourselves. 
 At all events, it is fortunate that education is one 
 of those few questions on which men of all parties 
 can and do meet, and combine their efforts. This 
 fact is a legitimate subject of congratulation, and 
 is not the weakest of those grounds of encourage- 
 ment and hope, which should inspire the breast 
 with courage, and nerve the arm to vigorous 
 action. In this particular we have the advantage 
 of those who are battling in the same cause in 
 Great Britain. The whole power of the ultra 
 Tory party is there armed against all change, in 
 education as in every thing else. 
 
 6. The last in our list of encouragements, 
 though not the least in influence and importance, 
 is that the Press universally is in our favour ! If 
 there are any exceptions to this remark, they are 
 not known to me, and are at any rate too few in 
 number to be of any account. This is alike true 
 of the daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly jour- 
 nals, in every part of our land. With one voice 
 they have proclaimed and reiterated the solemn 
 truth that — " If we fail by education to awake, 
 
 GUIDE, confirm THE MORAL ENERGIES OF OUR PEO- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 249 
 
 The Press in Favour of Education. Appeal to its Conductors. 
 
 PLE, WE ARE LOST !" May this sentiment, so true 
 in fact, so fearful in import, be echoed back by our 
 whole people! May it be emblazoned on our ban- 
 ners, inscribed on our halls of legislation, pro- 
 claimed from the pulpit and the rostrum, imbibed 
 by our children with the milk that nourishes their 
 infancy, and written indelibly upon the tablet of 
 our heart. 
 
 To the conductors of the Press may I, without 
 presumption, be permitted to say — Persevere in 
 your advocacy of this noble cause, and redouble 
 your efforts in it. You hold in your hands an in- 
 strument of tremendous power. Wield it with 
 caution; wield it with boldness; but above all, 
 wield it for the blessing of your race. And in re- 
 ference to the education of the people — that para- 
 mount interest of a free state — let the voice of 
 warning, of remonstrance, and of exhortation, 
 never cease to be heard. Cry aloud, and spare 
 not — till our desolate and w^aste places shall be- 
 come like Eden, and the desert shall rejoice and 
 blossom as the rose. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, these hasty and imperfect 
 Hints are drawing towards a close. I have gone 
 over the whole ground which I proposed to my- 
 self to occupy at the outset of my undertaking. I 
 have treated of a subject which yields to no other 
 in importance, in whichever of its relations you 
 
250 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Recapitulation of Topics discussed in the Work. 
 
 choose to consider it ; would that I had possessed 
 the talent to present its claims in a style and with 
 an earnestness commensurate with that import- 
 ance. I have brought to my task honesty of pur- 
 pose, an ardent love for the cause I have endea- 
 voured to advocate, the deepest convictions of its 
 inseparable connexion with the best interests of 
 man, and that measure of ability with which it has 
 pleased Him who gives and withholds in wisdom, 
 to endow me. Let us now pause, and briefly sur- 
 vey the ground over which we have travelled. If 
 I have not missed my aim, the following positions, 
 among others, have been established : — 
 
 Education is necessary for all classes, and for 
 each individual in the community, especially in a 
 government founded upon the popular will ; and it 
 is the duty of such a government to take care that 
 this great end be secured. 
 
 The education established for the people, to be 
 suitable, must be real, not verbal ; it must teach 
 things primarily, ivords incidentally; it must culti- 
 vate the faculties of observation and comparison, 
 and communicate the art of reflection; it must 
 educate the senses and the physical powers, and 
 convey to the pupils a knowledge of the dignity 
 of their nature, of their relations to other beings, 
 of their rights and duties as men and citizens, of 
 the progress of human affairs in different ages and 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 251 
 
 Recapitulation continued. 
 
 countries, and of the manifold and wonderful 
 works of the Creator by which they are surround- 
 ed ; in short, it must make them moral, reflective, 
 independent in judgment and action, industrious, 
 and religious. These high objects are not secured, 
 as a general thing, by our present systems, and 
 therefore a reform is necessary. 
 
 Good schools cannot exist without good teach- 
 ers. We have at present but few teachers pro- 
 perly qualified, and cannot have without provision 
 for their special training. A supply of competent 
 instructors can be obtained only through the 
 agency of teachers' seminaries. Institutions of 
 this kind are indispensable, and ought to be forth- 
 with established. Departments for the training of 
 teachers engrafted on colleges and academies, 
 would be better than nothing, but original, inde- 
 pendent institutions are preferable. 
 
 Teaching should be made a permanent business, 
 and elevated to its proper rank among the other 
 professions. In order to effect this, not only must 
 the qualifications of teachers be elevated above 
 their present standard, but their compensation 
 must be greatly increased. It is now a mere pit- 
 tance, not amounting in fact to as much as can 
 be realized from any other employment. The 
 country is able to pay liberally for education ; no- 
 thing is wanting but the disposition. 
 
252 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Recapitulation Concluded. 
 
 Notwithstanding the very great improvements 
 that have been made of late years in school-books, 
 other works of a higher order are still needed on 
 some subjects; and on several branches of know- 
 ledge that ought to be introduced as studies into 
 our common schools, we have as yet no text-books 
 at ail. Knowledge is the natural food of the mind, 
 and the pursuit of it, prosecuted on proper princi- 
 ples, is always a source of pleasure. Bad books, 
 and worse modes of instruction, are the chief 
 causes of the general aversion of the young to 
 study. Our common schools ought all to be sup- 
 plied with small but well selected libraries, with 
 cabinets of natural history and mineralogy, and 
 with apparatus for illustrating the simpler princi- 
 ples of science. The location and architecture of 
 school-houses have been greatly neglected, but 
 deserve attention. Such an organic constitution 
 should be given to a system of general education 
 as will ensure its practical efficiency. 
 
 Finally, various and formidable obstacles stand 
 in the way of the improvements needed; but these 
 are more than counterbalanced by facts and con- 
 siderations of an encouraging character, which 
 are sufficient to inspire the friends of education 
 with courage and zeal, and to incite them to active 
 exertion. 
 
 If these positions have been sustained, or, whe- 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 253 
 
 Our Duty to Posterity as inferred from the whole Discussion. 
 
 ther they have or not, if they are true, they im- 
 pose upon us duties of high import, requiring for 
 their due performance, rare combinations of quaU- 
 ties, and reaching in their effects through all coming 
 time. We may not shrink from them, without 
 incurring a fearful responsibility. The intelligent 
 and conscientious discharge of these duties, is a 
 debt which we owe to our children and to posteri- 
 ty. It is shared by every citizen, but it rests with 
 augmented claims upon those who are chosen to 
 make our laws, and watch over our pubKc inte- 
 rests. Could I indulge the hope that any appeal 
 from so humble an individual would have aught of 
 weight with the statesmen and legislators of the 
 land, I would say to them — Consult for all the inte- 
 rests of your constituents ; let none be overlooked, 
 neglected, or forgotten ; but let the education of the 
 people receive, as it deserves, your earliest, deep- 
 est, and most unremitted attention. A system of 
 popular schools, comprehensive in its range of 
 studies, thorough in its modes of mental disciphne, 
 and pure in its every influence, is the sheet-an- 
 chor of our social system. It is the bond of 
 our union, the ward and keeper of our consti- 
 tution, the charter of our happiness, our safety, 
 and our rights. " Other measures may change, 
 and yield, and be forgotten, as the national mind 
 changes or subsides beneath them ; but this is a 
 
 22. 
 
254 HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 Concluding Appeal to Statesmen and Legislators. 
 
 measure which creates the national mind, which 
 insures, by its firm and broad substructions, the 
 solidity and durability of every other structure." 
 You have provided for other interests, far inferior 
 io importance to this, with clear-sighted wisdom, 
 and corresponding liberality. You have made this 
 country in many respects a leading member in the 
 great brotherhood of nations. In her internal im- 
 provements, her prisons, and her various and nu- 
 merous public charities, she may challenge com- 
 parison with the proudest of her competitors. Her 
 civil and social institutions have excited the admira- 
 tion of distant nations, and been made the theme of 
 panegyric before their councillors and their senates. 
 You, and all of us, are justly proud of these high ho- 
 nours, and cherish the glory conferred upon our 
 country by such exalted testimonies to her intelli- 
 gence, her humanity, and her public spirit. But, like 
 the young man in the Gospel, she lacks one thing ; 
 and that, as in his case, is the most important. It is 
 a broad, sound, liberal system of public instruction 
 in each of her constituent members. I am not, 
 indeed, insensible to the efforts already made, nor 
 to the good actually accomplished ; and it would 
 ill become me to disparage them. Some of you 
 have nobly entered upon the good work of reform.* 
 
 * The legislatures of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and 
 some other states, have conamenced the work in earnest, and are 
 prosecuting it with activity. 
 
HINTS ON POPULAR EDUCATION. 255 
 
 Reward to be gained by providing for the EnJightenment of the People. 
 
 Carry it forward, carry it forward, with a Spartan 
 spirit of perseverance, to its full completion. Crown 
 the honour of the nation. Establish every where 
 schools for the people, multiply the sources of 
 knowledge, lay deep and broad the foundations of 
 enlightened systems of popular education; — -and 
 your reward shall be in the consciousness of duty 
 performed and benefits conferred ; posterity, to the 
 latest age, shall bless your memory; and the glory 
 of millennial illumination shall be hastened by your 
 labours. ^ 
 
 THE END, 
 
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