fighting people, and consequently in the Christian art of killing men they are doubtless behind the age. Although our knowledge of them is not perfect, we think it safe to attribute to their system of education their great adhesiveness, prosperity, and importance as a people, and their wonderful stability, antiquity, and consist-, ency as a nation.

SEC. 2. Ancient Egypt, the land of luxury, letters, and libraries, was a government good in many respects, but without a system of schools for the people, and it long since passed away. Persia, the land of flowery fancy and princely profligacy, occasionally had a ruler who placed great stress upon the proper education of his own children, and thus a Cyrus was given to history; but the Persian empire was a government without a system of education for the people, and it fell to pieces so long ago that it is hardly mentioned now except in ancient history. Even the Hebrew nation, God's chosen people, notwithstanding all that has been said and written about "the schools of the prophets," had, as a nation, no schools and no school system worthy of the name. The "stiffnecked" fathers were indeed commanded to teach the law to their children; but so far as we know, they did this without supervision and in their own way, if at all. So from generation to generation, notwithstanding the good men God sent among them, they were a "stiff-necked and rebellious people." And the illustrious throne upon which sat David and Solomon, even this fell because it was not supported by a system of national education for the peo

ple. There were in Greece great philosophers and schools, but they were entirely independent of and separate from the machinery of government. The spirit of inquiry and the thirst for knowledge that might have been turned to the state's advantage and secured its stability was left to individual enterprise; so there was no harmony of thought, no unanimity of purpose, and the Grecian republics have long since disappeared from the catalogue of nations. Even the once mighty and powerful Rome was left to the same chance, and her "decline and fall" may be attributed to the same cause. In no country of antiquity, except China, was there any governmental scheme for the education of all classes. Sparta under Lycurgus came near to it, but the education imparted by the state was mainly physical, and did not reach the peasant classes. The bishops and clergy were the first in Europe to recognize the duties of the authorities to educate the young. The Council of Vaison (A.D. 529) recommended the establishment of public schools. In 800 a synod at Mentz ordered that the parochial priests should have schools in the towns and villages, that "the little children of all the faithful should learn letters from them." A council at Rome in 836 ordered that there should be three kinds of schools throughout Christendom. The Council of Lateran in 1179 ordained the establishment of a grammar school in every cathedral, for the gratuitous instruction of the poor. This ordinance was enlarged and enforced by the Council of Lyons in 1245. Thus originated the

European and American popular or common schools as an outgrowth of the Christian Church. Martin Luther, amid his arduous and anxious labors, found time to do good service to the cause of popular education. In 1524, he wrote 66 an address to the common councils of all the cities of Germany in behalf of Christian schools," in which occurs the following passage: "It is a grave and serious thing, affecting the interest of the kingdom of Christ, and of all the world, that we apply ourselves to the work of aiding and instructing the young. If so much be expended every year for weapons of war, roads, dams, and countless other things of the sort for the safety and prosperity of a city, why should not we expend as much for the benefit of the poor, ignorant youths to provide them with skillful teachers ?" In 1526, he wrote to the Elector of Saxony as follows "Since we are all required, and especially the magistrates, above all other things, to educate the youth who are born and are growing up among us, and to train them up in the fear of God and in the ways of virtue, it is needful that we have schools. If the parents will not reform, they must go their way to ruin; but if the young are neglected and left without education, it is the fault of the state; and the effect will be that the country will swarm with vile and lawless people; so that our safety no less than the command of God requireth us to foresee and ward off the evil." He asserts, also, that the 66 government, as the natural guardian of all the young," has the right to compel the people to support schools. "What is necessary

to the well-being of a state," said he, "should be supplied by those who enjoy the privilege of such state. Now, nothing is more necessary than the training of those who are to come after us and bear rule." The magnificent organization of schools to which Germany owes so much of her present fame is clearly the legitimate result of the labors of Luther.

Before the kingdom of Prussia existed, except as the Mark of Brandenburg, (1540,) visitors were appointed to inspect the town schools of the electorate, with express directions to report in relation to the measures deemed necessary for their improvement. Other action was taken afterward in the same direction; and when the kingdom of Prussia was established, the duty of the state to take care of and provide for the education of its rising generation became one of the main foundation principles of the government. Prussia, we believe, was the first government in Europe founded on this principle, which has since been adopted by all of them, except, perhaps, England. The schools in Austria are sectarian, and consequently not more than half the children in the empire attend them. In Sweden, for nearly two hundred years, the ability to read and write has been indispensable to the assumption of the functions of citizenship. Elementary education is universal in Sweden. England is well supplied with institutions for secondary and superior education, and for the promotion of science, literature, and the arts; but all these are supported chiefly by tuition fees, private contribution, or ancient endowments.

There is a dense mass of popular ignorance upon which these institutions shed no light, except to make the darkness more visible by contrast. The neglect of the government to provide schools for the masses has filled England with the most brutal and ignorant populace in Europe. In 1851, the returns of 708 schools were signed by the master or mistress with a mark, the teacher not knowing how to write; these were what are called “inferior schools." But the same strange fact occurred in the returns of thirty-five public schools, most of them having endowments.

SEC. 3. The various plans adopted by governments for fostering education are reducible into four general classes, which we will call the Chinese, the Hebrew, the Prussian, and the American. I. The Chinese plan consists in establishing a system of excellent graded schools, and making it necessary to pass through all the grades with honor in order to acquire eligibility to office in the state. The direct results of this plan are: (1.) to make a thorough education absolutely necessary to every one who would share in the honors and emoluments of the government; (2.) to secure for government officials men who are all highly and similarly educated; and (3.) to make education a high honor in itself, and an acknowledged badge of superiority as well as a social and political advantage. The Chinese educational system embraces a most complete course of eminently national instruction, and is made to stand out in bold prominence, so that it may strike the minds of all in such a