11. In not having sufficient reference to the future pursuits and condition of children.

SEC. V. THE EDUCATION NEEDED BY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

1. Moral and religious, as a means of cultivating habits of self-control, and of obedience to lawful authority.

2. Thorough intellectual culture, in order to promote habits of inquiry, and of deliberating before we act; and also to render us more tolerant of opinions differing from our own.

3. Industrial training, as a security against the temptations of idleness, as affording useful discipline to the mind and feelings, as promoting habits of order and regularity, as favourable to health, and as a pledge of interest in the common welfare.

4. A more elegant and humanizing culture, as, 1. A security against sensual indulgence. 2. A resource in leisure. 3. An innocent and healthy source of enjoyment. 4. Improving manners. 5. Strengthening virtuous principles and feelings.

The education now bestowed on the mass of the American people does not answer this description.

SEC. VI. IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION.

I. To the Individual.

Education of some kind is unavoidable. We must choose, therefore, between the casual education of circumstances, which is bad, and the formal tuition of teachers and parents, which may, and should be, good.

1. The uneducated are sensual, and, therefore, selfish and cruel.

2. They are the victims of groundless hopes and fears; therefore credulous, superstitious, and unhappy.

3. They are prejudiced; therefore averse to new truths, and unable to appreciate them.

4. They are deprived of the personal and domestic resources enjoyed by all who love books.

5. They do not enjoy the emotions even of surprise, wonder, or adoration, as highly as those, who inquire and

reason.

6. They are unfitted for the more profitable and honourable employments of life.

7. They are less likely to be satisfied with their station in life, and with the labours and cares to which they are subjected.

SEC. VII. IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION.

II. To Society.

Society is a partnership, and may be considered, first, as a material partnership; second, as a political and social one. 1. As a material partnership, engaged in producing and distributing wealth, it is benefited by education, because,

(a) Education makes men more industrious; (b) more trustworthy; (c) more active and systematic; (d) more cheerful; (e) more far-sighted; (f) more economical, as producers and preservers of property.

By neglecting these truths, England has suffered. By observing them, New-England has greatly prospered.

Cor. It follows: 1. That education affords the most certain means of developing the industrial resources of a country, and promoting its growth and prosperity. 2. That general education is the best preventive of pauperism.

2. As a political and moral partnership, society is benefited by education, because,

(a) It tends to make a people more orderly, and to substitute reflection for passion; (b) to predispose them to respect lawful authority; (c) to indispose them to submit to oppression; (d) to render political revolutions gradual and bloodless; (e) to qualify men for the exercise of more and

more political power; (f) to make refinement and civili zation universal.

Examples of the benignant social effects of general education are afforded, 1. By small communities, like the parish of Oberlin or the manufacturing town of Lowell (Mass.). 2. By states or nations, such as the states of New-England. the democratic cantons of Switzerland; Holland, Prussia, &c.

The influence of education in diminishing crime, is proved by many particular facts, and by the general result, that crimes decrease, usually, in proportion, as a good system of popular instruction becomes more prevalent.

This education, so important to individuals and to states, may be made attainable to all, even the most indigent and laborious; for,

1. Labour does not deaden the intellect, but tends rather to quicken and invigorate it.

2. The claims of labour are not inconsistent with leisure sufficient for mental culture.

There must be a deeper conviction, among the people, of the necessity and value of education, and a clearer perception of its nature and objects, before we can expect any great improvement.

CHAPTER II.

COMMON SCHOOLS.

SECTION I.

RELATION OF COMMON SCHOOLS TO OTHER MEANS OF EDUCATION.

"Mothers and schoolmasters plant the seeds of nearly all the good and evil which exist in our world. Its reformation must therefore be begun in nurseries and in schools."-DR. RUSH.

"At home, a boy can learn only what is taught him; but in school he can learn what is taught to others."-QUINTILIAN.

"That education which will secure to the future, the civilization of the past and present, is what the country really requires."— WHEWELL.

I HAVE hitherto spoken of the education of the people, without referring to the sources, from which they derive it. I now come to consider Common Schools, as forming one of the most important of these sources, and the one with which we are especially called to deal, in this work. In order to understand, more clearly, the precise agency which these schools exert, it will be proper, however, to notice some of the other causes, which contribute to form the mind of a people, and the relations, which these sustain to Common Schools.

Among these causes, some are physical, such as climate, soil, and geographical position; and these, while they exert great power over the character and history of nations, are not liable to be modified materially by education. On the other hand, moral causes, such as those of a political, religious, and literary nature, are subject to human control; and there is, between them and prevailing systems of education, action and reaction, of the most intimate and powerful kind.

The agencies, however, which share most immediately with Common Schools, in the office of moulding a nation's spirit and character are, 1. the family; 2. higher seminaries of learning; 3. the means of self-culture, provided in books, lyceums, &c. I propose, in this section, to confine my inquiries to the precise place which the Common School occupies in respect to each of these; and I shall endeavour to show that, while all of them are necessary in a complete system of national education, each one derives from the Common School essential aid and support, and, in its turn, affords corresponding aid and support to it.

I. What relation, then, in the first place, does the Common School bear to the family, as an instrument of education? It is, evidently, the intention of the Creator, that the first years of a child's life should be passed under the immediate eye of its parents, and especially under that of an affectionate and judicious mother. It needs, then, a tenderness and watchful care, which can be expected from no other source, and in the retirement of home it drinks in, from the lips and deportment of those so much loved and revered, the most precious lessons of wisdom and virtue. There are cases, however, in which parents are so occupied that they are obliged to neglect their children, even during their infant years; and other cases, in which they are disqualified, by their character and habits, from applying any salutary influence. In these cases, it may be necessary to place even very young children in infant schools, where they can be treated with proper tenderness, and can have the benefit of good moral, and intellectual training. At a later period, when a child attains, for example, the age of seven or eight, and requires more formal and thorough instruction; it is expedient, in most instances, that he should be separated, for a part of each day, from his parents (whatbe their character and circumstances), and enjoy the peculiar advantages of a good school. In thus prefer

ever may