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supported by a tax, as Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont; in others, by a large public fund, as in Connecticut, Virginia, and some others; and others, again, partly by the public treasury and partly by private contribution, as in New York. In both the last cases, the children are not considered as educated at the public expense, though the difference between them and the first class of cases is essentially the same, so far as regards the public bounty.

Of the three descriptions of schools, the elementary, by their great number, seem to be far the most deserving of consideration, if we look merely to their direct influence on individuals; but if we regard the political and general effects of each, it is not easy to say which contributes most to the well-being of the community. The primary schools give instruction and improvement to the bulk of the voters, the great reservoir of political power. The grammar schools educate that class whose views and feelings mainly constitute public opinion on all questions of national policy, legislation, and morals, and who thus give political power its particular directions. It is from the least numerous class- the collegiate that the most efficient legislators, statesmen, and other public functionaries are drawn, as well as those professional men who take care of the health, the rights, and the consciences of men.

There is another important class of instructors of which the census takes no separate notice, that is, the ministers of religion, who, once a week or oftener, besides performing the rites of worship, each according to the modes of his sect, indoctrinate large congregations in articles of faith, and inculcate man's religious and moral duties. The number of ministers of every denomination, at the taking of the last census, was computed to exceed 20,000, and the deeply interesting character of the topics on which they treat, gives to this class of teachers a most powerful influence over the minds of men; but, fortunately, it is so divided by the mutual counter actions of rival sects, that it can no longer upheave the foundations of civil society, or seriously affect the public peace. Yet the influence of the ministers over their respective followers is rather enhanced than diminished by the rivalry of different sects, and the more, as they are all improving in information and oratorical talent. They occasionally bear away the palm of eloquence both from the bar and the deliberative assemblies. If this vast moral power spends its force yet oftener on speculative subtleties than on awakening emotion or influencing conduct; if it aims more to teach men what to think, than how to feel or to act, this circumstance affords, per

haps, as much matter of congratulation as regret, when we recollect how easy the pure, mild and healthy influence which religion might exert, and which we sometimes see it exert, could be converted into bitter intolerance and the excesses of wild fanaticism.

There is yet another source of popular instruction-the periodical press-which is noticed by the census as a branch of manufacturing industry, and which is exclusively occupied, not merely with worldly affairs, but with the events of the passing hour. It keeps every part of the country informed of all that has occurred in every other, which is likely to touch men's interests or their sympathies. Nor, in attending to the vast, does it overlook the minute. Every discovery in science or art, every improvement in husbandry or household economy, in medicine or cosmetics, real or supposed, is immediately proclaimed. Scarcely can an overgrown ox or hog make its appearance on a farm, or even an extraordinary apple or turnip, but their fame is heralded through the land. Here we learn every legislative measure, from that which establishes a tariff to that which gives a pension; every election or appointment, from a president to a postmaster; the state of the market, the crops and the weather. Not a snow is suffered to fall, or a very hot or very cold day to appear, without being recorded. We may here learn what every man in every city pays for his loaf or his beefsteak, and what he gives, in fact, for almost all he eats, drinks and wears. deaths and marriages, crimes and benefactions, the pursuits of business and amusement, exhibit the varied, ever-changing drama of human life. Here, too, we meet with the speculations of wisdom and science, the effusions of sentiment, and the sallies of wit; and it is not too much to say, that the jest that has been uttered in Boston or Louisville is, in little more than a week, repeated in every town in the United States, or that the wisdom or the pleasantry, the ribaldry or the coarseness exhibited in one of the Halls of Congress, is made as promptly, by the periodical press, to give pleasure or distaste to one hundred thousand readers.

Here

It has eyes to

Nor is its agency limited to our own concerns. see and ears to hear all that is said and done in every part of the globe; and the most secluded hermit, if he only takes a newspaper, sees, as in a telescope, and often as in a mirror, every thing that is transacted in the most distant regions; nor can any thing memorable befall any considerable part of our species, that it is not forthwith communicated with the speed of steam to the whole civilized world.

The newspaper press is thus a most potent engine, both for good and evil. It too often ministers to some of our worst passions, and lends new force to party intolerance and party injustice.

"Incenditque animum dictis, atque aggerat iras."

But its benefits are incalculably greater. By communicating all that is passing in the bustling world around us, whether it be little or great, useful or pernicious, pleasurable or painful, without those exaggerations and forced congruities which we meet with in other forms of literature, it imparts much of the same knowledge of men and things as experience and observation. Its novelties gives zest to life. It affords occupation to the idle, and recreation for the industrious. It saves one man from torpor, and relieves another from Even in its errors, it unconsciously renders a homage to virtue, by imputing guilt to those it attacks, and praising none to whom it does not impute merit and moral excellence. Let us hope that it will in time, without losing any of its usefulness, less often offend against good taste and good breeding, and show more fairness in political controversy.

care.

According to the census of 1840, there were then in the United States 130 daily newspapers, 1,142 issued weekly, and 125 twice or thrice a week, besides 237 other periodical publications. Such a diffusion of intelligence and information has never existed in any other country or age.

Of the many substantial benefits of educating the people, it is scarcely necessary now to speak; since, wherever the experiment has been made, it has been found to favor industry, prudence, temperance and honesty, and thus eminently conduce to the respectability and happiness of a people. But the motives for giving knowledge a wide diffusion are peculiarly strong in this country, where the people being the sole source of political power, all legislation and measures of public policy must, in a greater or less degree, reflect the opinions and feelings of the great mass of the community, and be wise and liberal, or weak and narrow-minded, according to the character of those by whose suffrages authority is given and is taken away. If the body of the people be not instructed and intelligent, how can they understand their true interests-how distinguish the honest purposes of the patriot from the smooth pretences of the hypocrite-how feel the paramount obligations of law, order, justice and public faith?

Education, the School, and the Teacher in English Literature. Second Series. Republished from Barnard's American Journal of Education. 628 pages. $3.00. 1873.

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CONTENTS AND INDEX OF FIRST SERIES..

ART. I. WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS...

1. WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM, Bishop and Chancellor—1324–1404,

2. PUBLIC OR ENDOWED SCHOOLS.........

3. ST. MARY'S COLLEGE, Winchester-1387-1865.

.... ......

ΡΑΟΣ,

1-16

3

17-128

19

23

49

4. REPORT OF ROYAL COMMISSIONERS ON THE GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS.......... 81 5. ACTION OF PARLIAMENT AND COMMISSIONERS........

II. DEAN COLET, and ST. PAULS SCHOOL, London.... III. CARDINAL WOLSEY.-1471-1530.....

PLAN OF STUDIES FOR IPSWICH GRAMMAR SCHOOL, 1528.

IV. SIR THOMAS ELYOT.-1497-1535..

THE GOVERNOR, or Training for the Public Weal, 1564.

V. RICHARD MULCASTER.-1531-1611..............

POSITIONS respecting the Training of Children, 1581.
VI. JOHN BRINSLY-WEBSTER-CHRISTOPHER WASE.
VII. CHARLES HOOLE.-1616-1666........

OBJECT TEACHing and PictoriAL ILLUSTRATIONS, 1661..
THE NEW DISCOVERY OF THE OLD ART OF TEACHING, 1658.
THE PETTY SCHOOL........

118 129-160

161-164

161

...

165-178

........

167

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IX. ALEXANDER POPE-ROBERT SOUTH-SIR RICHARD Steele...

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2. FARADAY HERSCHEL-WHEWELL-HAMILTON.............

3. ACLAND AIRY-HENFREy-Hooker-HUXLEY.......

LYELL-OWEN-Paget-TyndALL-WILSON..........

4. MILL-FROUDE-CARLYLE, on University Studies..............

5. MACAULAY-NEWMAN, on the University of Books and Life..

XIV. ART AND Science in ENGLISH EDUCATION...
XV. MECHANIC INSTITUTIONS AND POPULAR EDUCATION...

..........

417

448

449

465

481

497

529

545-592

593-628

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