Year: 1876

| suppose every school-bOy ha'


heard OF Archimedes, who fondll
dreamed that if he had Il lever lone
enough, and a platform solid enough
to place his lever upon, that he could
lift up the terrestrial Globe of ours
and literally turn the world upside
down. But the philosopher did not
accomplish his project, or account Ol
the unsurmountable ifs.


Now, it will be our object in this
article to ascertain, if possible, the
true platform upon which the world
is to be lifted up, not literally, but
mentally and morally, and socially.


Some men will say give ms good
la'cs, and the face of the dry, with
cred world will soon blossom as the
rose. No! Give us the best consti-
tuition the world knows, and if there
is no m lnhood to receive it, men will
trample it under their feet. What
shall give the manhood? Will sys-
TEN of mere restraint and penalties
meet the requisite? We answer again,
No. Legislature may restrain men
from stealing, but the legislature can
not make men honest. Law may i'm
prison rebels. but law can not raise
rebels into patriots Law has had
long ages in which to show what it
can do, and under its stern and
righteous rule the earth never be
came much brighter than prison
house. Law has long carried its code
in one hand and the iron rod in the
other, and has invariably failed, be-
cause it has no mastery over the
heart. All the weakness and failures
of outward law 90 to show that, if
ever the world is to be lifted up, the
elevation is to be wrought by higher
force than written statutes. What
may that force be? In the solution
of the perplexing problem we hear
thousands reiterating the language
OF the world -rehown sage, Daniel
Webster, that "we must Gducate!
"we must educate! =


1t would be perfectly snperfluous
to address an argument to the Amer
lean people, on the absolute necessity
of popular education. knowledge
we must hare. But, what knowledge:
That is the question. Will purely in
tellectual culture suffice? Shall we
say, knowledge of the arts? Shall
we say polite literature? Shall it be
eloquence or human philosophy? No.
The wisdom and philosophy of Scion
and Licurgus failed to save the pol
ished and learned States of Athens
and Sparta from destruction, and the
eloquence and sagacity of Plato and
Socrates failed to save the Grecian
States. They went down into the
night upon which no sun ever shone.
Their civilization was not built on
solid foundation, consequently fail
ure. Again we find the Roman Sen
ate listening with rapture to the wis
dom of the old Hellenic sages trans
lated by Cicero into the Latin tongue.
What did it avail? They too, went
down into the tombs of dead nation.
The elements of ruin was wrought in
the very texture of the civilization
of Greece and Rome, and Egypt and
Babylon. The spiritual elements of
national character was decayed, and
decay in the ruder realms of physi-
cal life was an inevitable cOnse-
quence.


Now, if good laws, if art and
science, philosophy and eloquence
fail to lift up the down-trodden world,
what will? We think Queen Victoria
gave an honest and philosophical
answer to our inquiries, when the
Prince asked her, sWhat is it makes
England great?' She took Bible
from the side board and gave him,
saying, "This book makes England
great" Ah. noble Queen, you are
right-"righteousness exalteth a ma
tion," and "where there is no vision
the people perish" The Bible is the
great civilizer of the world. We
know that it is very much of a fash
ion with our modern school philoso-
pliers to disparage or ignore the Bi-
BILE as q cause of human progress.
But we make the claim, believing
that history attests the truth oil our
assertion. beyond refutation. We
must bear in mind at the onset, that
in order to understand the lesson OF
history Alright, it must be studied in
the light of its philosophy. We will
never know the real history of any
nation until we not only know ,0hat
happened, but also ,ohy it happened.


Now, let us take short survey of
ancient history, and see what it teach
es US.