Year: 1876




duties connected with the government


such as appertain to the state depart


ment, finance, diplomacy, &c, schools


would be provided and men educated
Tor IT at the public expense. But this is


not need-hence we have no such


schools, we need none. All the more
| general duties belonging to the state can


be performed by men Of common attain


ments; and the common school course,


moreover, is sufficient as a basis Of gem


eral intelligence, and as a plain from


which the highest development may be


reached; and this grade alone would be


sufficient, If, without a higher grade il


could be maintained in its greatest eff
cheney. But men look higher than this.
/ Fix the limit here and private institu-


tions will be established in every consid-
| cradle city. We shall hence have pri-


vate schools for the rich and public


schools for the poor. Hope Of higher
! attainment and elevation in a great mea-
| sure removed from the poorer classes the
/ great mass would fail to reach that de-


gee Of intelligence which the best inter
ests of the state require. Another evil
| glowing out of this state of things would
\ be the failure to produce a homogeneous
society. Our free public schools as they
/ now are, with their yearly increasing
power constitute the great leveling force
| Of the ages Not that they bring all
/ high things low, they bring low things
high as well. They make low and high
/ things as well. They make low and high
/ things meet above the mists Of the


marshes and below the glittering heights
/ Of the per petual s1ow-line, in the region
/ of perennial life and beauty. No man
/ can estimate the influence on the intelli-
u n. r.
/ our higher grades of schools, and al
| though the greater number of children
/ may not enter them, still even they who
do not, feel their Influence, and they
/ afford the cheapest and best stimulus to
| general education that the state can give.
These higher grades Of schools are de-
nominated in our country, high schools,
| they seem to be not so much state insti-
/ tutions as municipal and township
schools, the state by general tax provid-
for the minimum quantity Of education,
and those permitting each city, corpora
ton or township, to supplement this
with another tax to support a higher
grade and to continue all grades in oper-
alton for larger time.


Now to what extent these high schools
shall be carried is a most difficult prob
lem to solve. u would evidently be un-
Just and oppressive to support by public
tax schools of the highest grade, repre-
sented by such colleges as Dartmouth
and Yale, in sufficient number to educate
all that would enter them under that
state of circumstances IL would require
an enormous tax on the many for the
benefit OF the few. The evil would over
balance the good.


But such higher education is necessary.
Aapoan1a IL erianna HnrnanHa ~
the church and all professions demand
it, And this demand will create the
supply. Private enterprise will do this.
Assisted, it may be, by state patronage
without resort to taxation.


We shall have then three grades of
schools, the common, the bigh and the
college. When should the common
school course end2 Evidently where the
high begins. Where should the high
school end2 Evidently not far from
where the college begins. In linguistic
studies this should be the rule. Deeper
and more thorough plOwing and cultivat-
ing in a narrower field will make better
scholar and better citizens. Some
branches of science, of mathematics, and
of general literature OF a useful and prac-
tical nature may be carried farther. But
the greater good will be accomplished
both for the people and the state when
each grade of schools shall work in its
own separate field. And when these alb
normal institutions, called colleges, less
extensive and thorough in their course
than many of our best high schools shall
be baptised with some new and more APP
propriate name; and when they who
conduct them shall learn that the gas
which they generate burns with flame,
which emits little heat and less luminous
even than that of hydrogen.


Passing to the second part of my
theme | ask, What kind of education
may the state demand2 A comprehen-
sive answer to this question would be,
that Aind which in all respects would
develop the highest manhood shall
not delay to consider courses of study or
methods of instruction, but shall con-
slider briefly those greater and broader
aims of the teacher, the formation of
habits in respect to those great princi-
Piles which make the most perfect phys
ical, moral. and mental men. These are
possibilities. Nations have risen and
have decayed through the force Of ma
tional habits.


If we shall look for the causes that
have produced the peculiar Characters
tics OF any modern nation we shall gen





formed in some distant period Of the
past, commanded it may be by the su-
preme power of the state.


We admire that pure Caucasian family |
first known in the extensive forests be- |
yond the Rhine, where it lives to day the |
most interesting and powerful nation Of |
Europe, the giant in the spiked helmet; !
a nation physically, mentally and NOR |
ally great. We find many of the causes |
of all this in their national habits, ac-
quired before the days Of Julius Caesar.


The world has never seen a warrior /
superior to the Spartan. To him the /
preparation for battle was the prepara-
tion for a grand festival. And this Spar
tan, war-like manhood, and all other /
superior national qualities of that re-
markable people was solely the result Of |
education. The nation under a beauti-
full sky, with a gentle climate and fertile |
soil was lapsing into efieminacy, but un-
der the laws Of Lycurgus the sterner
qualities of the race were developed.
And 50 we shall find with every nation
and race. five go behind the more prom
inent events of history to the more
silent, yet not lees powerful forces that
produce them.


National habits are possibilities, and
national improvements are made by /
means of them, and national necessities
must be thus supplied.


The state needs bone and muscle Of
the best quality, men like the knighted
and Highland braves of Walter Scott,
like the immortal band that defended
Thermopyle.


A fair representation of the average
character OF this country may be seen in
almost every school room. Select twenty
boys, command them to stand erect be-
fore you. A majority stand with one
Il l.. Al. a