way as to leave a definite, forcible, and lasting impression. It carefully avoids all vexed questions, such as religion, for example; and without taking upon itself the championship of any thing that might prejudice any class against it, it marshals all its forces and advances only for the accomplishment of its own purposes. It does not choose to lessen its importance or waste its energies by dividing its honors and multiplying its objects, but adheres faithfully to its legitimate aims; and the result is the most stable government, and perhaps the greatest, that has ever appeared upon the face of the earth. II. The Hebrew plan was to establish a government without a system of education, or to establish a religion and apply the whole force of the government to the support of it. Some of the Hebrews were unquestionably learned, and others of them may have been; but there was nothing in their laws or government, and there is nothing in their history, to lead us to suppose that their government as such, or they as a people, gave any prominence to education, in the sense in which the term is now used. They seem to have left the science of human development to take care of itself, or to "private enterprise" or "free competition," as in England. The most liberal and comprehensive minds of England, seeing a warning in the history of other nations, have for a long time been urging upon the government the importance of a national system of public schools. But what these men desire and demand is a system of schools which shall be free from sectarianism; a thing which is

certainly most desirable, but which is not to be easily obtained from a government with an established church. III. The Prussian educational system is purely governmental, emanating solely from a minister of instruction immediately dependent on the crown. The universities, the gymnasia, and the primary schools are all under laws. and regulations which proceed respectively from the crown, from the provincial government, and from the communes. Every child in the kingdom is obliged, under pains and penalties, to attend school at least from the age of seven to that fourteen; and the result is, that the Prussian people are efficiently educated throughout the entire community, and that the universities send forth a large body of highly educated men. This scheme has given to Prussia some prominence as a nation, and it has to a considerable extent nationalized the people. But there would seem to be something still wanting; for, notwithstanding their vast and powerful machinery for popular instruction, the Prussians have not taken a leading part in civilization. Horace Mann supposed that this partial want of success in the Prussian school system arose from the fact that when the children once leave school they have few opportunities of applying the knowledge or exercising the faculties which have been acquired and developed there. This, however, is only the result of the cause, and not the cause itself. A government that reserves its highest honors for a privileged aristocracy, and at the same time forces the young to attend its schools, not for their advantage, but for the

advantage of the government and its favorites, may be able to boast that all its people can read, write, and cipher; but at the same time it must admit that, while bestowing this limited amount of knowledge, it carefully smothered or crushed in them all their hopes, so natural to youth, for distinction. In a government having an hereditary aristocracy, people of humble origin are pur posely kept in obscurity; and they have, and can have, but few, if any, incentives for distinguished zeal. In such a government, those who have the misfortune to be born lowly can by no efforts of theirs change their status, unless, indeed, it be from bad to worse, for ambition there is treason. A people with their natural instincts and ideas thus dwarfed, and thus forbidden to give birth to new hopes or new aspirations, could hardly be expected to take a leading part in civilization. Nor could they be expected to carry out of the school-room any particular fondness for the education which they may have received there. The Prussian system of education is defective because it does not impart new hopes and desires to the young; and because it is defective in this respect the Prussians have not taken a leading part in civilization. IV. The plan which we have called the American plan is that system of education which has been generally adopted in the United States. It is quite different from any thing that has yet been explained. There is no other country in the world which contains a population composed of such heterogeneous elements as this. The character of the original settlers has left its impress to a

certain extent upon their descendants, though in many parts of the country all such distinctive traces have been obliterated by the streams of subsequent immigration from all parts of the world. The form of government, too, is peculiar. There are really as many governments as there are separate States; but these for certain purposes are bound together, by a perpetual league, into one general government. "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people." (Const. of U. S. art. 10, Amend.) The general government does not seem to have been charged or intrusted with the education of the people. It is, however, authorized "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." (Const. of U. S. art. 1, sec. 8, subd. 8.) But the very first principle of many which was enunciated by the delegates of the American people, when they met to take the first step toward forming a general government, and the one which seems most likely to control the action and shape the destiny of the republic, was, that "all men are created equal." Afterward, in forming a constitution for their government, the people, mindful of the history of other nations, refused to permit the general government to constitute or establish a privileged class among them. "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States." (Const. of U. S. art. 1, sec. 9, subd. 7.) Thus secured in their

reserved rights, the people of each State have a government of their own, a State legislature, for the enactment of such laws as they may deem necessary for the full enjoyment of their rights, and as are not in conflict with the constitution of the general government. The right to educate the people was not delegated to the general government, consequently this right remains with the people of the several States, and is exercised by them, if at all, in their legislatures. There has been much legislation in the several States on this subject. All of them have felt it their duty to encourage education in some way. In many of them a most liberal and efficient system of free schools is established, and this will doubtless soon be the case in all. These schools are in the main well conducted, and kept entirely free from sectarianism. The attendance is rarely compulsory, as in Prussia; nor can the teachers incite their pupils to greater exertion by reminding them that, if they pass through all the degrees with honor, the government will reward and the people will venerate them, as in China. But in all these schools the pupils are taught that a good education is its own reward; that with it happiness, wealth, honor, and political preferment are all possiwhile without it a person labors under a thousand disadvantages, no matter what he undertakes, all his life long; and he will be fortunate indeed if he is not often the object of ridicule and contempt. The pupils are reminded that, if they will but make themselves competent and worthy to hold office, even the highest offices and

ble;