LCill 
 
 .Si 
 
 RELIGIOUS ELEMENT 
 
 IN 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION, 
 
 AT 
 
 PORTLAND, ME.; AUGUST 30, 1844. 
 1 
 
 BY CALVIN E: STOWE, D. D., 
 
 Professor of Biblical Literature; Lane Seminary, Cincinnati 
 
 BOSTON: 
 WILLIAM D. TICKNOR & CO., 
 
 Corner of Washington and School Streets. 
 
 1844. 
 
THE 
 
 RELIGIOUS ELEMENT 
 
 irr 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION, 
 
 AT 
 
 PORTLAJND, ME., AUGUST 30, 1844. 
 
 
 
 .:^/ 
 
 BY CALVIN E. STOWE, D. D., 
 
 Professor of Biblical Literature, Lane Seminary, Cincinnati 
 
 2871 
 
 BOSTON: ^^]^^a-^^ 
 
 ILLIAMD. TICKNOR&CO., 
 
 Corner of Washington and School Streets. 
 
 1844. 
 

 At a meeting of the American iNSTiTtrTE of Instruc- 
 T^O]^f, it was Voted «' to print for gratuitous distribution five-thousand 
 copies of the Address delivered by Calvin E. Stowe." 
 
 SoiiOMOjj AdamSj Secretary, 
 
 Portland, Aug> BO, 1844. 
 
A? 
 
 
 f HE 
 
 RELIGIOUS ELEMENT 
 
 tic 
 
 EDUCATION 
 
 BY CALVIN E. STOWE, D. D. 
 
 In every civilized community we observe striking 
 diversities among Individuals of the same nation, and 
 even of the same parentage. In uncivilized communities 
 these differences are far less observable. This single 
 fact shows that such diversities, however great they may 
 be, are much more the effect of education than of any 
 original, constitutional difference made by the Creator. 
 
 Why is It that in all the towns of our own country, 
 there are some men uncouth In manner, rough in speech, 
 and brutish in thought, while others are refined In man- 
 ners, easy in language, and of intelligent and elevated 
 minds ? Not generally because they were born different, 
 but because the one class has been educated and the other 
 
DR. STOWe's lecture. 
 
 not. Why is one woman engaging in person, pure in 
 thought, agreeable in manners, an object of affectionate 
 pride to all who know her ; while another, born with a 
 mental and physical constitution in all respects equal, is 
 disgusting in person, impure in thought, licentious in man- 
 ners, an object of mingled pity and abhorrence to all who 
 behold her ? Because the one was reared in the bosom 
 of a pious, pure-minded and virtuous family, the other 
 was cast in early life among the very dregs of society, 
 and exposed to all their increasing abominations. Look 
 over the surface of society, and see the immense diver- 
 sities that exist, and notice how few of them can be 
 traced to constitutional differences, and how many to ed- 
 ucation ; and estimate if you can, the invaluable impor- 
 tance of a right education in early life. In many cases 
 it is all, humanly speaking, that makes one man a bene- 
 factor of the human race, and another a drunkard or a 
 thief; all that makes one woman the pride and ornament 
 of society, and another an outcast and a prostitute. 
 Who of us can say, that if our early education had been 
 like that of thousands of others, we should not now, in- 
 stead of sitting here in this quiet and respectable assem- 
 bly, surrounded with circumstances of comfort and 
 respectability, have been wallowing in debauchery, the 
 degraded inmates of a prison or a brothel? 
 
 It is true that some break through the restraints of 
 early habit, and become good and great in spite of a vi- 
 cious or defective education ; and that others, notwith- 
 standing the influence of an education apparently good, 
 become vicious and perverse. But these examples, 
 especially of the first class, are extremely rare and re- 
 markable exceptions to the general rule ; and where they 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 5 
 
 do occur, there can generally be discovered, on close ex- 
 amination, some hidden cause that has produced the 
 good, — some hidden defect that has occasioned the bad 
 result. 
 
 Who, then, I say again, can estimate the unspeakable 
 value of a right education, — the deplorable evils of a 
 wrong one, since the whole existence of an intelligent, 
 conscious, feeling, immortal soul, for time and for eter- 
 nity, so essentially depend upon it ? 
 
 It is true there are Individual diversities of character 
 and capacity, which no education can equalize or assimi- 
 late ; but the whole difference which exists between 
 classes Is made by education, and by education it is per- 
 petuated. Wherever there is a domineering class and 
 a degraded class, wherever there is an intelligent class 
 and an ignorant class. It is education and education alone 
 that makes the difference. Reverse all the circumstances 
 of the two, and in one generation, the domineering would 
 become the degraded, and the degraded the domineering,' 
 the intelligent would become the ignorant, and the igno- 
 rant the intelligent class. So far as God is concerned. 
 He fashioneth their wants alike ; and there is the same 
 regular distribution and apportionment of talent In the 
 different classes of society, that there is of the sexes. 
 It is not the arrangement of God, but the wickedness 
 of man, that has kept, generation after generation, whole 
 classes of human beings in a condition of hopeless bar- 
 barism and ignorance. How can we estimate the 
 wickedness of this kind of oppression ? When we see a 
 well developed, vigorous. Intelligent young man, or a 
 graceful, accomplished, refined young woman, we invol- 
 untarily do them homage as among the noblest of God's 
 
DR. STOWe's lecture. 
 
 works ; and when we extend our view to eternity, and 
 reflect that the spirits which animate those forms and 
 gives them all their interest, will continue to exist and 
 expand and become more and more interesting through 
 all eternity, we are compelled to feel that one such 
 young man, or one such young woman, is worth infinitely 
 more than all the products of the earth besides. Why 
 then, should not every child that is born into the world, 
 and endowed by his Creator with an immortal spirit, 
 have the opportunity to become such a man or woman ? 
 What right has any one human being to prevent, or hin- 
 der any other human being from becoming as intelligent, 
 as interesting, as lov^ely as his nature is capable of be- 
 coming ? What so profitable, so advantageous, so con- 
 ducive to the prosperity of a community, as a continual- 
 ly increasing number of such men and women, from 
 whatever class they may spring ? and what so profitless, 
 so destructive, as men and women of the opposite char- 
 acter ? The necessity of labor creates no necessity for 
 ignorance or degradation. The most industrious states 
 of this Union are also by far, a hundred fold, the most 
 intelligent, the most refined, the farthest advanced in 
 everything which constitutes civilization. In point of 
 general intelligence, compare Massachusetts with proud 
 old Virginia, or any part of New England with imperious 
 South Carolina. By the returns of the last census, the 
 amount of ignorance among the free white men of South 
 Carolina, whose labor is all performed by slaves, is forty- 
 fold greater than it is among the free white men of Ver- 
 mont who cultivate their own farms with their own hands 
 and nev^r talk big of nullification. In South Carolina, 
 the proportion of free white persons over twenty years 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. * 
 
 of age who can neither write nor read, is one in seven- 
 teen, in Vermont it is one in 493 i The necessity of 
 hand labor, creates no necessity whatever, constitutes no 
 excuse whatever, for the existence of an uneducated, 
 brutified class of human beings ; on the contrary, the 
 existence of such a class in the bosom of any community, 
 is a hindrance to all good, a fruitful source of every 
 kind of evil. 
 
 The Bible, in several expressive texts, gives emphatic 
 utterance to the true principle of all right education. 
 For example, Prov. 9: 10. The fear of the Lord is 
 the beginning of wisdom^ and the k^iowUdge of the Holy 
 is understanding. Religion must be the basis of 
 all right education, and an education without religion is 
 an education for perdition. Religion, in its most general 
 sense, is the union of the soul to its Creator ; a union 
 of sympathy, originating in affection and guided by intel- 
 h'gence. The word is derived from the Latin terms re 
 and ligOj to tie again^ or reunite. The soul, sundered 
 from its God by sin, by grace is reunited to Him ; and 
 this is religion. 
 
 There is but one form of true religion on earth, re- 
 vealed by God to man, and that is the form contained in 
 the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, com- 
 monly called the Christian religion. In regard to reli- 
 gious instruction, the question, at least throughout Chris- 
 tendom, plainly is between the Christian religion and no 
 positive religion ; for no one with whom we are concern- 
 ed, will contend that any other system of positive reli- 
 gion ought to be taught in preference to the Christian. 
 
 It is my object in this lecture, 
 
 I. To exhibit some of the reasons why instruction in 
 
8 DR. stowe's lecture. 
 
 the Christian reh'gion should make an essential part of 
 every system of education, whether in the family, the 
 critical school, the high school, the university, or the 
 professional seminary. 
 
 II. To answer some of the more plausible objections 
 which are usually urged against such instruction ; and 
 
 III. To show how such instruction can be given 
 faithfully and efficiently in our common schools and other 
 public institutions, without violating any of the rights of 
 conscience. 
 
 I. Why should instruction in the Christian religion 
 make an essential part of every system of education, — 
 whether in the family, the district school, the high school, 
 ithe university, or the professional seminary ? 
 
 1. The nature of the mind requires It. 
 
 The mind is created and God is its Creator. Every 
 mind is conscious to itself that it is not self-existent or 
 independent ; but that its existence is a derived one, and 
 its condition one of entire, uniform, unceasing depen- 
 dence. This feeling is as truly a part of the essential 
 constitution of the mind as the desire of food is of the 
 body, and it never can be totally suppressed. If it ever 
 seems to be annihilated, it is only for a very brief inter- 
 val ; and any man who would persist in affirming himself 
 ito be self-existent and independent would be universally 
 regarded as Insane. The sympathy which attracts the 
 sexes towards each other is not mor€ universal nor gen- 
 erally stronger than that inward want which makes the 
 whole human race feel the need of God ; and indeed the 
 two feelings are in many respects so analogous to each 
 other, that all ancient mysteries of mythology and the 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 9 
 
 Bible itself, have selected this sympathy as the most 
 expressive, the most unvarying symbol of the relation 
 between the soul and God. 
 
 Till men can be taught to live and be healthy and 
 strong without food ; til! some way is discovered in which 
 the social state can be perpetuated and made happy with 
 a total separation of the sexes ; till the time arrives when 
 these things can be done, — we cannot expect to relieve 
 the human mind from the necessity of having some kind 
 of religious faith. This being the fact, a system of edu- 
 cation, which excludes attention to this part of the mental 
 constitution. Is as essentially incomplete as a system of 
 military tactics that has no reference to fighting battles, a 
 system of mechanics which teaches nothing respecting 
 machinery, a system of agriculture that has nothing to do 
 with planting and harvesting, a system of astronomy which 
 never alludes to the stars, a system of politics which 
 gives no intimation on government ; or anything else 
 which professes to be a system, and leaves out the very 
 element most essential to our existence. 
 
 The history of all ages, of all nations, and of all com- 
 munities is a continued illustration of this truth. Where 
 did the nation ever exist untouched either by religion or 
 superstition ? which never had either a theology or a 
 mythology ? When you find a nation that subsists with- 
 out food of some sort, then you may find a nation that 
 subsists without religion of some sort, and never, never 
 before. How unphilosophlcal, how absurd it is, then, to 
 pretend that a system of education may be complete, and 
 yet make no provision for this part of the mental con- 
 stitution ! It is one of the grossest fooleries which the 
 wickedness of man has ever led him to commit. But it 
 
10 DR. STOWe's lecture. 
 
 is not only unphllosophical and foolish, it is also exceed- 
 ingly mischievous, — for where religion is withheld the 
 mind inevitably falls to superstition ; as certainly as wheo 
 wholesome food is withheld, the sufferer will seek to 
 satisfy his cravings with the first deleterious substance 
 which comes within his reach. The only remedy against 
 superstition is sound religious instruction. The want 
 exists in the soul. It is no factitious, no accidental or 
 temporary want, but an essential part of our nature. It 
 is an urgent, imperious want ; it must and will seek the 
 means of satisfaction, and if the healthful supply be with- 
 held, a noxious one will be substituted. 
 
 2. The condition of society requires it. 
 
 Every one knows that men are continually subject to 
 impulses and passions, exceedingly dangerous and misH 
 chievous if not controlled and suppressed. Control and 
 suppression can be effected only by one of two methods, 
 namely^ either by the energy of external force or the 
 power of inward principle. The former is the method 
 by which the mass of men have usually been controlled ; 
 a method which has led to infinite abuse, and for ages 
 the many have groaned under the irresponsible tyranny 
 of the few. But a revolution, mighty, irreversible, irre° 
 trievable, has commenced—it cannot go back— -it will go 
 on to its consummation. The many will no longer be in 
 subjection to the (ew^ the masses feel their power and 
 will exercise it ; the people swear with their millions of 
 tongues and with their millions of eyes and millions of 
 hands, that they are the sovereigns, and that as such they 
 will be reverenced and obeyed. This revolution began 
 in the Anglo-Saxon race, but with them it will not stop. 
 It pervades every race and every clinae, and is rapidly 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 11 
 
 undermining the best established and the best regulated 
 thrones of the old world. 
 
 It is not long since I saw a letter from a gentleman of 
 high standing in Berlin, the capital of Prussia, who is 
 strenuously opposed to democracy and warmly attached 
 to the monarchical system of his native land, in which he 
 expresses hi nself to the following effect : " Some begin 
 to clamor for a constitution. How foolish ! The char- 
 acter of our reigning sovereign is the best constitution. 
 Compare the good order, the quiet, the security for life 
 and property, the universal public instruction of the Prus- 
 sian monarchy, with the disorders, the riots, the lynch-^ 
 ings, the slavery, the popular ignorance, of the so-called 
 constitutional states, and tell me what we can gain by the 
 change. Yet the mania is so wide spread, so deep, that 
 I have no hope we shall long escape ; and even Prussia,. 
 and that too at no distant period, must be afflicted with a 
 democratic constitution." 
 
 Such testimony from such a man, in the capital of the 
 best administered and most benevolent monarchy in ex- 
 istence, speaks volumes as to the present aspect of soci- 
 ty in the world. The decree has gone forth. The peo- 
 ple will free themselves from external, political restraints ;, 
 they will govern themselves, or they will not be governed 
 at all. Now, what is the substitute when external power 
 weakens its hold ? Nothing, nothing but inward princi- 
 ple ; and that principle, in order to be effective, must be 
 religious principle. 
 
 Some rely for the security of society upon the princi- 
 ple of self-interest ; and it is true that an enlightened re- 
 gard to self-interest in a society of equals does demand 
 the security and good of the whole. Hence it is that 
 
12 DR. stowe's lecture. 
 
 democratic governments, though in the hands of inferior 
 and selfish men, often conduce more to the good of the 
 people than aristocratic governments, even when con- 
 trolled by superior and benevolent men. But are people 
 generally governed by an enlightened regard to their own 
 interests ? Do they even know, in many cases, what 
 these interests require ? And admitting that they are ac- 
 quainted with their own interests, and when calm always 
 willing to be guided by them, how much are they con- 
 trolled by such considerations in the hour of tumult, and 
 excitement, and passion ? In a government of law, it is 
 notoriously for the interest of every good citizen, that 
 the law should not be impeded in its regular operation ; 
 and every impediment thrown in the way of the regular 
 operation of the law, is exceedingly hazardous both to 
 the property and life of the citizens generally. Yet, what 
 influence have these considerations in quelling the nume- 
 rous riots which disgrace our land, some of which have 
 been openly countenanced and abetted by men calling 
 themselves respectable ? To pass by more recent in- 
 stances, what influence had such considerations on the 
 mob in Kentucky, which called itself the people, and 
 deliberately murdered two men uncondemned and untried 
 by any form of law ? And what was worse, their con- 
 duct was approved by many in the community ; under the 
 wretched plea that that was a case to which the law could 
 not reach, and therefore the people did right to take it 
 into their own hands ! Now what enlightened regard do 
 such men show either to their own interests or to moral 
 principle ? And what safety can there be in a community 
 where such notions gain ascendency ? It is the easiest 
 matter in the world for a few artful villains to get up an 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 13 
 
 excitement against any man, under pretence that he has 
 been guihy of some offence which the law cannot reach ; 
 and he too may be hung without trial, jury, or judge. The 
 murder of the Vicksburg gamblers several years ago was 
 a case of the same kind ; and that too, with burning in- 
 dignation and irrepressible contempt I heard justified on 
 the same miserable plea, by men who ought to hang their 
 heads for shame all the days of their lives ! " The people, 
 the people (said they) had a right to take such fellows in 
 hand, and supply the deficiencies of the law." It is the 
 most outrageous calumny on free institutions that can be 
 conceived, the most tremendous satire on constitutional 
 governments that can be uttered, to call such mobs the peo- 
 ple^ and such acts a supplying of the deficiencies of the law. 
 In a government of law there is no safety for any man 
 but in a strict adherence to the principles and forms of 
 law — and yet this notorious fact is not sufficient to hinder 
 thousands in our country from violating all the principles 
 of law themselves and justifying their violation in others. 
 Passion is always stronger than reason ; religion, and re- 
 ligion only, can control it. What unprincipled wretch m 
 a fit of rage was ever deterred from abusing his family^ 
 or beating his horse, or torturing his defenceless slave, 
 by the consideration that it was not for his interest to do 
 so ? What cares he for interest while flaming with anger ? 
 Self-interest is no security at all against the influence of 
 passion : least of all against the passions of the multitude. 
 It is only by religious principle that popular governments 
 can be secured against the outbreaks of popular fury ; 
 and he who discourages or opposes religious education, 
 stands, as an enemy of free institutions, only next to hirii; 
 who countenances or justifies a mob» 
 2 
 
14 DR. stowe's lecture. 
 
 Now, since all the world is so fast hastening towards 
 the establishment of free institutions, since we see hi the 
 case of our own country the abuses and perils to which 
 such institutions are liable from a want of religious prin- 
 ciple among the people — who that has any benevolence, 
 any desire for the good of the human race, but must 
 earnestly wish to see religious institutions make a part of 
 every system of education, from the elementary school 
 to the professional seminary of the highest grade ? 
 
 A government of equal rights, under the control of 
 sound moral principle — this is the highest form of human 
 society — the form in which every individual is an intelli- 
 gent and self-governed man, capable of acting his own 
 part in the machinery of life. Towards this the human 
 race has been struggling from the earliest period of its 
 history ; and to this in our own country we had hoped 
 soon to arrive. But unless we have a larger infusion of 
 religious principle, it is a goal we shall never reach ; and 
 the revulsion whenever it comes, will be tremendous. 
 Our institutions grew out of religious principle, from re- 
 ligious principle they took their form, by religious prin- 
 ciple they have been thus far sustained, and in respect to 
 them the checking of religious principle is like girdling 
 the tree of the forest — stop the sap, and the tree is 
 dead. 
 
 Shall the best hopes of man be annihilated, shall the 
 human race be stopped in its onward career when so near 
 the goal, and thrown back on despotism and barbarism, 
 by our recreancy to religious principle ? 
 
 3. The religion of the Bible is worthy of such a 
 place in every system of education. 
 
 This would be true if all claim to divine inspiration 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT OF EDUCATION. 15 
 
 were abandoned. The peculiar character of the book, 
 its antiquity, the influence which it has exerted, and 
 which it still exerts, the place which it holds in the his- 
 tory of civilisation, the part which it has had in the edu- 
 cation of the human race, are enough of themselves to 
 make it the most important and interesting educational 
 book in existence ; and no system of education can be 
 regarded as complete, even in a secular and scientific 
 point of view, unless it includes a thorough study of the 
 religion of the Bible. Almost all the education which 
 exists, or ever has existed, among the people at large, 
 has coine to them through the Bible. Scotland and 
 New England and Germany, the countries where the Bi- 
 ble is the book of the people, are the countries in which 
 the common school system originated, and where it has 
 been perpetuated. Besides, what learning in the history 
 of man, what knowledge of human nature, what ethics, 
 what poetry, what eloquence, we find in the pages of the 
 Bible ! And all this expressed in a form so admirably 
 adapted to interest and improve the young and opening 
 mind ! He who rejects the Bible from a system of edu- 
 cation rejects the very best means which the whole circle 
 of literature affords for the establishment of his work. 
 
 4. Human life without religion is so utterly empty 
 and worthless. 
 
 If this life be the whole of our existence, we may well 
 say : Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow ive die. There 
 is not enough of this life alone to afford to any reflecting 
 man a sufficient motive for exertion ; and every great 
 mind which sets itself to make effort with views confined 
 to this world, is always obliged to go beyond the limits 
 
16 DR. stowe's lecture. 
 
 of the present life for motives, and maintain itself by the 
 delusive dream of posthumous fame. And how can any 
 mind, elevated at all above the animal, be satisfied with 
 what this life can afford ? What is it ? Or how long 
 can it be enjoyed ? Or what certainty is there of attain- 
 ing it, even such as it is ? 
 
 What is that which this life alone can give ? A mere 
 momentary gratification, like that which the drunkard 
 feels while swallowing the intoxicating draught, succeeded 
 by feverish restlessness and indescribable miser}'. Man 
 was made for eternity, and time is not his element. 
 
 How long can it be enjoyed ? We cannot be assured 
 of it even while life lasts — and if we could, what is our 
 life .'' It is even as a vapor ivhich appearefh for a little 
 time^ and then vanisheth away. 
 
 What certainty is there of obtaining it, even such as it 
 is ? of the thousands who devote themselves to this 
 world, scarcely one In a thousand ever obtains the object 
 of his pursuit ; and every one that does obtain it, is dis- 
 appointed after he has it within his grasp. 
 
 A striking and melancholy proof was not long ago ex- 
 hibited to us of the vanity of this life. We saw General 
 Harrison, in the flush of health and hope, leave our 
 shores at Cincinnati, amid the acclamations of a grateful 
 and sympathizing people, to take the station most coveted 
 by ambition, and conferred on him in the manner most 
 flattering to every feeling of personal vanity. He had 
 spent a long life of hard service. The peculiar circum- 
 stances of his early career, the people among whom he 
 was thrown, the great simplicity, disinterestedness and 
 energy of his character, were all most favorable to the 
 elevation which he attained. After many years of ob- 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT OF EDUCATION. 17 
 
 scurity and despondency, a combination of favoring in- 
 fluences, such as rarely occurs once in the course of 
 centuries, gave him the reward which his services and 
 character deserved, and elevated him with unprecedented 
 unanimity to the highest post in the gift of the people. 
 But immediately on his entering the capitol, death fol- 
 lows him and tears him away, and he is brought back to 
 us a lifeless corpse ; and the same landing, which a few 
 weeks before had resounded with acclamations at the 
 sound of his living voice, now^ witnesses the same dense 
 crowd in silence and in sorrow, attending his lifeless form 
 to the lonely tomb, 
 
 George IV. of England possessed the most magnifi- 
 cent, the most coveted throne on earth. He seemed to 
 think himself exempt from all law, human and divine ; 
 whatever he pleased to do, that vi'as right to him. But 
 nature regarded not his regal pride ; his debaucheries 
 brought disease as if he had been but a vulgar laborer ; 
 and when in his weakness and distress he asked his 
 attendants to move him, he felt a change coming over 
 him w4iich he could not control, and in alarm he cried : 
 *'Ah, what is this — this is not right — oh, this is Death!" 
 and expired. 
 
 The late queen of Prussia had all for this world that a 
 human being could possess. Beautiful, accomplished, 
 the object of universal admiration for her personal quali- 
 ties, united in the most intimate bonds with a sovereign 
 who made her his idol, surrounded by obedient and in- 
 teresting children, beloved by a grateful people, in the 
 enjoyment of every thing which a throne could give, — 
 she too must experience the utter emptiness and vanity 
 of the world ; she too must sink under an accumulation of 
 2* 
 
18 DR. STOWE S LECTURE. 
 
 sorrows so great, that the last words she uttered, were : 
 *' O God, forsake me not ; O Jesus, shorten my suffer- 
 ings" — just such a prayer, and for just such a purpose, 
 as any poor slave might utter while writhing under the 
 agonies of torture. 
 
 Such is the world ; incidents of this sort are continu- 
 ally occurring in it ; and what can any deeply reflecting 
 mind consider the world good for without religion ? what 
 motive to such a mind for effort without a hope in eter- 
 nity ? 
 
 II. We proceed now, as was proposed, to answer 
 some of the more plausible objections which are usually 
 urged against religious instruction in a system of general 
 -education. 
 
 1. It prejudices the mind, and closes it against the 
 free admission of truth. 
 
 This objection is of force in respect to wrong instruc- 
 tion, but certainly it is of no avail against that which is 
 right, for right instruction is truth. Now it is not wrong 
 (religious instruction which we advocate, but that and that 
 only which is right. 
 
 But this, the objector contends, does not fairly repre- 
 sent his meaning ; his idea is, that amid the variety of 
 conflicting opinions which exist in the world, the mind 
 should be left free, without prejudice against or in favor 
 of any, to choose unbiassed for itself, when its powers 
 shall have become fully developed, and it shall have ca- 
 pacity to make an intelligent choice. I will remark in 
 passing, that it is no privilege so much to be coveted to 
 choose falsehood and error even with a fully developed 
 nrind. If the objection refers merely to the external 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT OF EDUCATION. 19 
 
 form of religion, it is not of very great Importance any 
 way ; but if it refer to the inward surface, the essen- 
 tial element of religion, it rests on a view of the hu- 
 man mind which is entirely erroneous, which has no 
 foundation whatever in nature. It supposes that if the 
 mind be left uninstructed on a particular point, it will 
 on that point have no prepossessions. This may be 
 true in respect to subjects in which the mind has no con- 
 stitutional interest, and of which it never thinks till they 
 are brought to it from without ; but it is not true in re- 
 spect to a topic in which the mind feels an interest from 
 its very nature, and which it will think of, whether brought 
 to it from without or not. I once knew an old man who 
 insisted that there was no need of eating ; it was, as he 
 expressed it, " only a sort of a notion that people had 
 got into, and they might as well be rid of it as not." So 
 some people seem to think, and with equal reason, in re- 
 spect to religion. Religion is a part of this human insti- 
 tution ; the wants on which it is founded are intrinsic, 
 within the mind Itself, and we are not brought Into it 
 from without. Accordingly, the mind, whether instruct- 
 ed or not, will have its religious Impulses and reflections ; 
 and If these are not absorbed and guided by sound in- 
 struction, they would grow rank and wild and prepossess 
 the soul, and that too In the worst manner possible. The 
 soil that Is left uncultivated, will be overgrown with weeds 
 and brambles. This is seen abundantly In the monstrosi- 
 ties which everywhere grow up in the unoccupied pagan 
 mind as respects religion ; and leave every active, fertile 
 intellect in Christian lands untaught, and it will have a 
 false religion of spontaneous growth. The poet Goethe 
 when a child had very little religious instruction ; but his 
 
20 DR. stowe's lecture. 
 
 mind felt the want, and when not more than ten years 
 of age, he took it into his head to worship the sun, and 
 erected a little altar in his chamber window, on which at 
 the first ray of dawn he burned incense with intense delight. 
 Every mind is not so active or so fertile, but every mind 
 feels the same want in a greater or less degree, and will 
 contrive means to gratify it according to its powers. 
 
 Besides, in every state of society, people will talk on 
 the subject of religion, books will be written on theologi- 
 cal topics, children will hear some of this conversation 
 and read some of the books, and thus their minds become 
 in some degree prepossessed, without the advantage of 
 system and completeness. The only alternative is to 
 sow the field well, to cultivate it, and keep out the weeds, 
 so as to secure a good crop — or leave it to the chance 
 seeds which may fall to grow up with weeds and come 
 to no good. The only way to prevent prejudice and 
 prepossession, to leave the mind free to choose and give 
 it the power of intelligent choice, is to imbue it early 
 with the right kind of religious instruction. 
 
 2. Sects in this country are so numerous and diverse, 
 that religious instruction cannot be given in public institu- 
 tions without violating the rights of conscience. 
 
 The parent undoubtedly has the right to control the 
 religious education of his child, and he is responsible to 
 God for the manner in which he exercises the right. If 
 a parent objects to the religious Instruction of any institu- 
 tion, he has a right to take his child away from it, or re- 
 quire that he be excused from the religious exercises. 
 But where religious instruction is judiciously given, this 
 right will not be asserted by one parent in a thousand, 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT OF EDUCATION. 21 
 
 even of those who are violently sectarian, or destitute of 
 all religion. 
 
 A man who has no conscience, certainly has no right 
 of conscience to be violated ; and a man who has a con- 
 science has necessarily some religious principle ; and not- 
 withstanding the infinite diversity of forms which religion 
 assumes, the principle of true religion is under all forms 
 essentially the same. If one can detect, explain, and 
 illustrate this principle In its unsullied purity, it will re- 
 commend itself alike to every man who really has a con- 
 science, to every heart that has sympathy with religious 
 principle, whatever may be the external form in which 
 that sympathy usually manifests itself to observation. 
 
 Religion, if one has it, generally manifests itself in 
 some individual form ; but there is such a thing as reli- 
 gious principle abstracted from all form ; there is such a 
 thing as the science of anatomy, in which every idea that 
 is expressed applies, not to any particular Individual of 
 the human race exclusively, but to the whole race gen- 
 erally ; and the anatomical subject which lies on the dis- 
 secting table can be completely described In all its bones 
 and muscles and tendons and nerves and arteries and 
 veins, without saying a word which is applicable exclu- 
 sively to that particular subject, and not to the whole 
 human race collectively. Yet not one of the principles 
 ever existed in life, not one bone or muscle was ever put 
 in motion, except in the case of some individual, who 
 was distinguished from all others by his own identity and 
 idiosyncrasies ; and that very subject which lies on the 
 dissecting table Is not mankind in general, but it is the 
 body of some particular person, who had his own name, 
 and his own character, and his own personal pecullaritiesj 
 
22 DR. stowe's lecture. 
 
 which distinguished him from all others and made him 
 different from everybody else. After this illustration I 
 hope I shall not be misunderstood when I say, that though 
 religion in real life and as applied to practice must always 
 exist in the character ; yet as an object of contemplation, 
 and as matter of instruction, there may be religion in the 
 abstract. 
 
 It would be very easy in a lecture on anatomy, to go 
 beyond the general truths and come to the individual pe- 
 culiarities, to describe not the human anatomy generally 
 and in the abstract, but the person of John or Peter or 
 Sarah, or whatever individual the body on the dissecting 
 table might have belonged to ; but this is not the object 
 of the lecture, and it is not done. The intelligent anato- 
 mist has no difficulty in drawing the line between the 
 personal and the general ; the former lies mostly on the 
 surface, the latter comprehends the whole essential struc- 
 ture. He may first describe what belongs to the whole 
 race as a race ; he may go further and describe the pecu- 
 liarities of the two great divisions of the race by sex ; 
 still further, to particular portions of the race, as black 
 and white ; and so on till he comes to individual persons ; 
 and all this without the least danger in any case of con- 
 founding the boundaries between any two of the divi- 
 sions. 
 
 So in religious teaching, instruction may be confined 
 to the great principles, which are always the same in all 
 forms of true religion, though it may be that not one of 
 those principles was ever active except under some par- 
 ticular form ; or the teacher may go into the three great 
 leading divisions, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the 
 Christian ; or he may be still more minute, and divide 
 
 I 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 23 
 
 the Christian church into the Greek, the Romish, and 
 the Protestant ; or more minutely still, he may speak of 
 Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists ; and 
 with still greater minuteness, he may talk of high church 
 and low church, old school and new school, regular and 
 radical, down even to the most microscopic sectarianism ; 
 and without the least danger, if he understands himself, of 
 confounding the boundaries between any two of the divi- 
 sions. Notwithstanding, then, all the diversities of sect, 
 there is still left open for religious Instruction, a wide 
 field which need not touch on those diversities. 
 
 3. It is difficult to draw the line between sectarian 
 and general religious instruction. 
 
 The remarks already made, are enough to prove that 
 the practical difficulty is not an insuperable one. The 
 line must be drawn by the direction and good principle 
 of the teacher. A' little, mean, sectarian mind, will al- 
 ways run into sectarianism, whatever lines you may draw 
 in theory ; while a man of magnanimous and expansive 
 mind, whatever latitude be allowed him, while he pro- 
 esses to be guided by general principles, and to teach in 
 such a way that different sects may safely trust their chil- 
 dren to his charge, will never make his religious instruc- 
 tions sectarian. 
 
 Some people make a wonderful business of drawing 
 lines, as if nothing must ever be attempted unless a suit- 
 able gird line can be accurately drawn beforehand to de- 
 fine its boundaries with exactness ; so that all on the one 
 side shall be exactly right and all on the other entirely 
 wrong. But this in practice is what can never be done ; 
 there is always something left for reasoning and the exer- 
 cise of judgment. Who ever pretended to draw the line 
 
24 DR. stowe's lecture. 
 
 between murder and manslaughter so accurately that 
 nothing need be left to the discretion of judge or jury ? 
 What is the fixed line in law between compos and non 
 compos mentis which precludes the necessity of discre- 
 tionary power ? In cases where the line is necessarily 
 definite, it is always so at the expense of metaphysical 
 truth. The law declares a man of age at 21, because 
 it is necessary to have a fixed line, and this is the one 
 most generally convenient, though it is notorious that 
 some men are better able to take care of themselves at 
 15 than others are at 25. How easy, on the principle 
 of the objection w^e are considering, to raise a clamor 
 against the law, and exclaim, " How can you draw the 
 line ? Will you say that the man who is twenty years of 
 age, 364 days, 11 hours, and 59 minutes old, is not ca- 
 pable of taking care of himself, but if he lives one minute 
 longer he is capable ? Was he not as capable two min- 
 utes before the time as two minutes after ?" Does any 
 one think the less of the propriety and necessity of the 
 law in consequence of such an objection ? 
 
 A man offers to sell a piece of land for a thousand 
 dollars, and one of these sagacious line-drawers wonders 
 why he is not willing to sell it for 999 dollars, 99 cents, 
 and 9 mills ! He wonders what reason he has for draw- 
 ing the line just there, rather than a little way on the right 
 hand or on the left ! Truly these men, who would draw 
 lines so accurately, must be wonderful men ! 
 
 The general principle, not at all difficult of apprehen- 
 sion, can be clearly stated ; and the application of this 
 principle to particular cases, must be left to the sound 
 discretion and honest-heartedness of the teachers and 
 managers of the schools. 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 25 
 
 III. We are now prepared for our third inquiry, to 
 wit, how can rehgious instruction be faithfully and effi- 
 ciently given in our common schools and other public 
 institutions, without violating the rights of conscience ? 
 
 In order to accomplish this most desirable end, three 
 things must be done. 1. There must be excited in the 
 community generally a whole-hearted honesty and enlight- 
 ened sincerity in the cause of education. 2. The Bible, 
 the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, without note 
 or comment, must be taken as the text-book of religious 
 instruction. 3. Instruction in those points which divide 
 the sects from each other, must be confined to the family 
 and the Sunday school. 
 
 A few remarks illustrative of these several points will 
 close the present discussion. 
 
 Of the seventeen or eighteen millions who compose ouf 
 population, not half a million pretend to have any serious 
 objection to the Christian religion as exhibited in the 
 New 'Testament, Of the thousands of youth in the pro* 
 cess of education, not one in a thousand has really any 
 objections which appear rational to himself against Chris- 
 tian instruction. If there be, then, generally in the com- 
 munity a whole-hearted honesty and enlightened sincerity 
 in the cause of education, it cannot be impracticable to 
 devise some method of Christian instruction which shall 
 be very generally acceptable. It is true there are diffi- 
 culties, but those difficulties ought not to be regarded as 
 insurmountable. 
 
 The progress of society has created a new exigencyr 
 whioh must be provided for, has opened new ground" 
 which must be occupied. Generally in the world's his- 
 tory there has been but little of individual freedom or in- 
 3 
 
26 DR. STOWE S LECTURE. 
 
 dividual thought on the subject of religion, and conse- 
 quently but little of individual peculiarity. Religion has 
 been generally a national affair, and men instead of rea- 
 soning and deciding for themselves, have believed ac- 
 cording to law. In most of the countries of Europe, in 
 consequence of the restraints upon religious liberty, the 
 sects are still very few ; and when you have provided for 
 Papists, Protestants, and Jews, you have no further 
 trouble. But in this country, in consequence of our un- 
 bounded religious freedom, the subdivisions of sect are 
 almost innumerable ; it is impossible in a system of public 
 instruction to provide for them all ; and unless religious 
 instruction can be given without sectarianism, it must be 
 abandoned. 
 
 In this country the rights of all sects are the same, 
 and any denomination that would have its own rights re- 
 spected, must respect the rights of others. 
 
 The time which can be devoted to religious instruction 
 in schools is necessarily very limited ; and if there be an 
 honest and sincere desire to do right, the whole of this 
 time certainly can be occupied, vi^ith efficiency and profit, 
 without encroaching on the conscience of any sect which 
 really has a conscience. 
 
 These are facts which show plainly, that notwithstand- 
 ing the diversity of sects, there is common ground, on 
 which the sincerely pious of all sects substantially agree. 
 For example, the most acceptable books of practical 
 piety, which even now are oftenest read by Christians of 
 all denominations, have proceeded from about all the dif- 
 ferent sects into which Christendom is divided, and are 
 read by all with scarcely a recognition of the difference of 
 sect. Such are the writings of Thomas a Kempis and 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 27 
 
 Fenelon, who were Roman Catholics ; of Jeremy Taylor 
 and Bishop Hall, who were churchmen ; of Baxter, Watts 
 and Doddridge, who were Presbyterians or Congrega- 
 tionalists ; of Bunyan and Andrew Fuller, who were 
 Baptists ; of Fletcher and Charles Wesley, who were 
 Methodists. This fact alone shows that there is common 
 ground, and enough of it too to employ all the time which 
 can properly be devoted to religious instruction in our 
 public institutions. 
 
 Yet, practically, there may be serious difficulty in leav- 
 ing it to the intelligence and discretion of the teacher to 
 select and occupy this common ground ; it may be diffi- 
 cult to find a sufficient number of well qualified religious 
 teachers, and religious instruction given by an irreligious 
 man, may be not only useless but in some cases positive- 
 ly pernicious ; and it may not be possible to contrive a 
 text-book of religious instruction which shall be accepta- 
 ble to all. 
 
 Happily, for all these practical difficulties there is a 
 remedy, which requires nothing more than real honesty 
 and a hearty zeal in the cause for its successful application. 
 
 All Christian sects without exception recognize the 
 Bible as the text-book of their religion. They all ac- 
 knowledge it to be a book given of God, and replete 
 with the most excellent sentiments, moral and religious. 
 None will admit that it is unfavorable to their peculiar 
 views, but on the contrary all pretend that it promotes 
 them. To the use of the Bible, then, as the lext-book 
 of religious instruction in our schools, there can be no 
 serious objection on the part of Christians of any sect ; 
 and even unbelievers very generally admit it to be a very 
 good and useful book. 
 
28 DR. stowe's lecture. 
 
 But shall it be the whole Bible ? or only the New 
 Testaaient ? or selections made from one or both ? 
 
 A book of mere selection would be very apt to awaken 
 jealousy ; and the exclusion of any part of the Scriptures 
 would to my mind be painful. Let every scholar, then, 
 have a whole Bible. The book can now be obtained 
 so cheap that the expense can be no objection. 
 
 How can the teacher instruct in the Bible without 
 coming on to sectarian ground ? He can teach a great 
 deal in regard to its geography and antiquities ; and can 
 largely illustrate its narrations, and its moral, rhetorical, 
 and even religious beauties. An honest, intelligent teacher 
 can find in this way abundant employment for all his time, 
 if he be himself a lover and student of the Bible, without 
 ever passing into sectarian peculiarities, or giving any 
 reasonable ground of offence. 
 
 But apart from all this, the chief business of instruction 
 in this department may be the committing to memory of 
 portions of the divine AVord. The most rigidly orthodox 
 will not object to this, for they believe every portion of 
 the Bible to be the ivord of God which liveth and abideth 
 for ever^ and that all scripture is profitable for doctrine^ 
 reproof correction^ and instruction in righteousness ; and 
 the liberal, though they may not sympathize in the high 
 orthodox view of the divine excellency of the word, yet 
 regard it as on the whole the best of books, and the 
 more of it their children have treasured up in their minds, 
 the better it must be for them. If the parent chooses, 
 he can always himself select the portions to be committed 
 by his child, or he may leave it to the discretion of the 
 teacher, or he may give general directions, as selections 
 from the Gospels, the Proverbs, the Psalms, etc. It is 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 29 
 
 not at all essential that all the children of the same school, 
 or even of the same class, should recite the same pas- 
 sages. Each child may be called upon in turn to recite 
 what each one has committed, and the recitation may or 
 may not be accompanied by remarks from the teacher, 
 as circumstances may seem to justify or require. In 
 some such way all the time which can properly be de- 
 voted to this subject, may be most profitably and effi- 
 ciently occupied ; and surely no reasonable parent will 
 ever object to having his child's mind richly stored with 
 scriptural truth expressed in scriptural language. 
 
 But there is another difficulty. The Roman Catholics, 
 it is said, do not desire that their children should be in- 
 structed in the Scriptures ; they receive the apocryphal 
 books as a part of scripture, and contend that we have 
 not the whole Bible unless we include the apocrypha ; 
 and they object to our common English translation. 
 
 In reply to this, I remark, in the first place, there are 
 many parts of our land where there are no Roman Catho- 
 lics, and of course the difficulty Vv^ill not occur in those 
 places. 
 
 Secondly, if Roman Catholics choose to exclude their 
 children from a knowledge of the Bible, they have per- 
 fectly a legal right to do so, and we have no legal right 
 to prevent it ; nor should we desire any such legal 
 right, for the moment we desire any such legal right, 
 we abandon the Protestant principle and adopt the Papal. 
 Catholic parents are perfectly competent to demand that 
 their children should be excused from the Bible recita- 
 tion, and this demand, if made, should be complied with ; 
 but they have no right to demand that the Bible should 
 he withheld from the schools because they do not like it, 
 3* 
 
30 DR. stowe's lecture. 
 
 nor do their objections render it necessary or excusable 
 for Protestants to discard the Bible from schools. 
 
 Again, if Roman Catholics desire that their children 
 take their Bibles into the schools, and recite from them, 
 by all means let them do so ; and so of Jews, let them 
 recite from the Old Testament, if they choose, to the 
 exclusion of the New. We allow to others equal rights 
 with ourselves ; but we claim for ourselves, and shall in- 
 sist upon having, equal rights with all. I am perfectly 
 willing to give to the Roman Catholics all they can justly 
 claim, but I am not willing to encroach on any one's 
 rights, or the rights of any Protestant denomination for 
 the sake of accommodating the Roman Catholics. Nor 
 do I suppose that the Romanists have a claim to any 
 special accommodation, for they have never yet mani- 
 fested any particular disposition to accommodate others. 
 Let them have the same privileges that our Protestant 
 sects have — that is enough ; and they have no right to 
 demand, our legislators have no right to grant, any more ; 
 and w^e Protestants will be perfectly satisfied when Prot- 
 estants can enjoy as great privileges in Italy as Roman 
 Catholics now enjoy in the United States. In judicious 
 practice I am persuaded there will seldom be any great 
 difficulty ; especially if there be excited generally in the 
 community any thing like a whole hearted honesty and 
 enlightened sincerity in the cause of public instruction. 
 
 It is all right for people to suit their own taste and 
 convictions In respect to sect ; and by fair means and 
 at proper times, to teach their children and those under 
 their influence to prefer the denominations which they 
 prefer ; but further than this no one has any right to go. 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT OF EDUCATION. 31 
 
 It is all wrong to hazard the well being of the soul, to 
 jeopardize great public interests, for the sake of advancing 
 the interests of a sect. People must learn to practise 
 some self-denial, on Christian principles, in respect to 
 their denominational preferences, as well as in respect to 
 other things, before pure religion can ever gain a com- 
 plete victory over every form of human selfishness. 
 
 Happily there are places where religious instruction 
 that is purely denominational can be freely given, so that 
 there is no need whatever of introducing It Into our public 
 schools. The family and the Sunday school are the ap- 
 propriate places for such Instruction ; and there let each 
 denomination train Its own children in Its own peculiar 
 way, with none to molest or to find fault. It Is their 
 right, it is their duty. 
 
 As to the objection, that the use of the Bible In 
 schools makes it too common and subjects It to con- 
 tempt, as well might It be objected that the sun becomes 
 contemptible because he shines every day and Illumines 
 the beggar's hovel as well as the bishop's palace. Where 
 is the Bible most respected, in Scotland and New Eng- 
 land, or in Italy and Austria ? The works of man, the 
 robed monarch, may make themselves contemptible by 
 being too often seen ; but never the works of God, or 
 the true God-man. The children may and ought to be 
 taught to treat the book with all possible reverence, and 
 to preserve it as nice and unsullied as the Catholic pre- 
 serves his crucifix ; and In this way, I am sure, on all the 
 principles of human nature with which I am acquainted, 
 that the Bible can be no more likely to suffer from the 
 habit of daily famiharity than the crucifix. 
 
 Let no one say, that the religious Instruction here 
 
32 DR. stowe's lecture. 
 
 proposed for schools, is jejune and unprofitable. I 
 do not so view the words of God. In any view, if the 
 child faithfully commit to memory so much as the single 
 Gospel of Matthew, or the first twenty-five Psalms, or 
 the first ten chapters of Proverbs, or the first half of 
 the book of Genesis, those divine sentences will be in his 
 mind forever after, ready to be called up to check him 
 when any temptation assails his heart, to cheer him when 
 any sorrow oppresses his soul, to be a lamp to his feet 
 and a light to his path ; to be in all respects of more real 
 and permanent value to him than any creed, or cate- 
 chism, or system of theology, or rule of ethics, of merely 
 human origin, ever can be. 
 
 Why should we prevent so great a good by claiming 
 w^hat we have no right to claim ? Are we not willing to 
 trust the word of God to cut its own way ? Or can we 
 claim to be Christians at all, while we consent to have 
 the word of God and all Christian teaching banished from 
 our institutions of public instruction ? Let not infidel 
 coldness, Jesuitical intolerance, or sectarian jealousy, rob 
 our schools of their greatest ornament and most precious 
 treasure, the Bible of our fathers. Let not denominational 
 feeling so far prevail as to lead us to destroy the greater 
 good while attempting to secure the less — as has so often 
 been done in the Christian world heretofore. We are 
 willing to give up much for the sake of peace and united 
 effort ; but the Bible, the word of God, the palladium of 
 our freedom, the foundation of all our most precious 
 hopes, we never can, we never will give up. Let all 
 who love the Bible unite to defend it, to hold on upon 
 it forever. 
 
 Matthias Claudius, a townsman of the astronomer 
 
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 33 
 
 Tycho Brahe, represents the state of the Christian world 
 by the following significant allegory. 
 
 There was once a sovereign whose subjects by their 
 own folly lost their freedom, and were shut up in a dole- 
 ful prison in a foreign land. His heart was moved by 
 their sorrows and he determined to release them. The 
 prison was built very strong, the doors were locked, and 
 no one had the key. The prince, with great self-denial, 
 labor and trouble, went on foot and in disguise to the 
 country where they were, bound the jailer hand and foot, 
 made a key for the door which he was obliged to temper 
 in his own blood, handed it to the prisoners through 
 the grate, and told them to unlock the door and come 
 out ; for the lock was so contrived that it could be un- 
 locked only on the inside. 
 
 But they took the key and sat down, and began to 
 look at it and to talk about it, and to wonder what it was 
 made of; and not agreeing in their conjectures, they fell 
 to disputing ; and instead of opening the door, they be- 
 gan to beat each other with the key. In vain did the 
 prince cry to them from w^ithout that the time was short 
 and the danger pressing; that the key was made to unlock 
 the door with ; and if they would apply it to its proper 
 use they would find that it would answer the purpose for 
 them all equally well, however they might differ as to the 
 material of which it was made, or the form which it bore. 
 
 Still they went on disputing till some took the jail 
 fever and died in prison, and others grew so stiff and 
 feeble with their long confinement that they were no 
 longer capable of moving, even if the door were opened — 
 (yet some of these felt exceedingly proud and self-satisfied, 
 because they were sure that they knew what the key was 
 
34 DR. stowe's lecture. 
 
 made of and how it was finished,) — and many who really 
 desired to get out could not get hold of the key because 
 the disputants held it up out of their reach. 
 
 And thus, though all might have escaped if they had 
 obeyed the voice of the prince at first, it was a long 
 while before the door was opened, and then but a feeble 
 and halting remnant made their way back to their native 
 land. 
 
 The Censors of the American Institttte of Instruction 
 have published five thousand copies of the preceding Lecture, in ac- 
 cordance with a vote of the Institute, passed at the Annual Meeting, 
 in Portland. They give notice that all who wish to obtain copies 
 may have them without charge by application to William D. Ticknor 
 & Co., corner of Washington and School Streets. 
 
 Cha.rl.Es K. Dillaway, ^ 
 
 William J. Adams, \ Censors of A. I. I. 
 
 J. Hale Abbot, 3 
 
LlBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 VALUABLE SCHO 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 WILLIAM D. TICKN 
 Cornel' of Washington and Scho< 008 947'" 125 4"" § 
 
 GOOD'S BOOK OF NATURE, Abridged from the Original Work, 
 adapted to the Reading of Cliildren and Youth 5 with Questions for the use 
 of Schools, and Illustrations from Original Designs. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM NOTICES OF THE WORK. 
 
 " Mr. Ticknor's edition of this work, abridged for schools and familieSj 
 meets with uncommon favor from the whole newspaper press. And in fact 
 it is worth}'^ of unqualified praise. Such an abridgment has long been want- 
 ed, and should be eagerly sought for by parents and teachers. It is printed 
 in a very neat and substantial manner, and sold at a moderate price." — Amer- 
 ican Traveller. 
 
 "An excellent abridgment of this meritorious work has just been published 
 by Mr. Ticknor, of this city. The compiler has strictly followed the order 
 of investigation and explanation laid down by Dr. Good." — Even. Gazette. 
 
 '^ A valuable abridgment of a work adapted to youth." — Annals of Edu- 
 cation. 
 
 BUMSTEAD'S SECOND AND THIRD READING-BOOKS IN 
 THE PRIMARY SCHOOL. These books are made up of easy reading 
 lessons — the language chaste and simple, and the mechanical execution of 
 the first order for books of this class. * * * School committees who are 
 contemplating a change in schools for which these books are adapted, will do 
 well, before making up their minds, to examine them. — Christian Watchman. 
 
 These are the titles of two of the most valuable little books that we have 
 seen for a long while, so well calculated as they are, for tlie use of children. 
 The selections have been made with the utmost care. — Evening Gazette. 
 
 03^ These books are used in the primary schools of Boston, Lowell, Sa- 
 lem, Cambridge, New Bedford, Portsmouth, and many other places* 
 
 SERIES OF FRENCH READING BOOKS. 
 
 EASY LESSONS FOR LEARNING FRENCH. No. 1 of the Series. 
 Selected from approved authors. " The purpose of the present work is to 
 furnish stories and other pleasant exercises for translating from the French 
 into English, adapted to beginners in the study of the language, who are yet 
 children. No such work or collection is to be had among us j and yet such 
 a one is much wanted, because children, and even young children, are daih' 
 instructed in French, to whom it is unwise to give Telemaque or Charles XII., 
 or other books suited to persons more advanced in years, and yet for whose 
 use it is difficult to procure any others." 
 
 TALES IN FRENCH FOR YOUNG PERSONS. By Madame Gui- 
 ZOT. No. 2 of the Series. "The tales in this volume are taken from her 
 works entitled Une Famille and Les Enfans, and it is believed they will not 
 suffer from a comparison with the similar work of Miss Edgeworth, whose 
 spirit they breathe, and whose merit they at least equal in the dramatic inter- 
 est with which they inculcate the most important principles hi the formation 
 of character." — "Madame Guizot appears to have' gotten a skirl of Miss 
 Edgeworth's mantle. The tales are emphatically good for young people j 
 better than all the whips and sugar plums in the world. They have each a 
 moral." 
 
 CAROLINE, OU L'EFFET D'UN MALHEUR, A Tale for Young 
 Persons. By Madame Guizot. No. 3 of the Series. " Like other stories 
 of Madame Guizot, it is beautifully written, and may be read with pleasure 
 not only by the young, for whom it was originally intended, but by persons of 
 all ages ; and especially those to whom the immediate nurturing of the young 
 is entrusted."