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again, what is to be done? These neglected children are in the midst of us. Our cities swarm with them. They are scattered everywhere over our beautiful hills and vallies. Grow up they will among our own children, without principle, and without morals, to breathe mildew upon the young virtues which we have sown and cultivated in our families, and to prey upon the dearest interests of society, unless somebody cares for their moral and religious education. And where shall they receive this education if not in the school-house? You will find them there, and multitudes of them you can reach nowhere else.

A more Utopian dream never visited the brain of a sensible man, than that which promises to usher in a new golden age by the diffusion and thoroughness of what is commonly understood by popular education. With all its funds, and improved school-houses, and able teachers, and grammars, and maps, and black-boards, such an education is essentially defective. Without moral principle at bottom, to guide and control its energies, education is a sharp sword in the hands of a practised and reckless fencer. I have no hesitation in saying, that if we could have but one, moral and religious culture is even more important than a knowledge of letters; and that of the former cannot be excluded from any system of popular education without infinite hazard. Happily the two are so far from being hostile powers in the common domain, that they are natural allies, moving on harmoniously in the same right line, and mutually strengthening each other. The more virtue you can infuse into the hearts of your pupils, the better they will improve their time, and the more rapid will be their proficiency in their com

mon studies. The most successful teachers have found the half hour devoted to moral and religious instruction, more profitable to the scholar than any other half hour in the day; and there are no teachers who govern their schools with so much ease as this class. Though punishment is sometimes necessary, where moral influence has done its utmost, the conscience is, in all ordinary cases, an infinitely better disciplinarian than the rod. When you can get a school to obey and to study because it is right, and from a conviction of accountability to God, you have gained a victory which is worth more than all the penal statutes in the world; but you can never gain such a victory without laying great stress upon religious principle in your daily instructions.

There is, I am aware, in the minds of some warm and respectable friends of popular education, an objection against incorporating religious instruction into the system, as one of its essential elements. It cannot, they think, be done without bringing in along with it the evils of sectarianism. If this objection could not be obviated, it would, I confess, have great weight in my own mind. It supposes that if any religous instruction is given, the distinctive tenets of some particular denomination must be inculcated. But is this at all necessary? Must we either exclude religion altogether from our common schools, or teach some one of the many creeds which are embraced by as many different sects in the ecclesiastical calendar? Surely not. There are certain great moral and religious principles, in which all denominations are agreed; such as the ten commandments, our Saviour's golden rule, everything, in short, which lies within the whole range of duty to God and duty to our fellow men.

I should be glad to know what sectarianism there can be in a school-master's teaching my children the first and second tables of the moral law; to "love the Lord their God with all their heart, and their neighbor as themselves;❞—in teaching them to keep the Sabbath holy, to honor their parents, not to swear, nor drink, nor lie, nor cheat, nor steal, nor covet. Verily, if this is what any mean by sectarianism, then the more we have of it in our common schools, the better. "It is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation," that there is so little of it. I have not the least hesitation in saying, that no instructer, whether male or female, ought ever to be employed, who is not both able and willing to teach morality and religion in the manner which I have just alluded to. Were this faithfully done in all the primary schools of the nation, our civil and religious liberties, and all our blessed institutions, would be incomparably safer than they are now. The parent who says, I do not send my child to school to learn religion, but to be taught reading, and writing, and grammar, knows not "what manner of spirit he is of." It is very certain that such a father will teach his children anything but religion at home; and is it right that they should be left to grow up as heathen in a Christian land? If he says to the school-master, I do not wish you to make my son an Episcopalian, a Baptist, a Presbyterian, or a Methodist, very well. That is not the school-master's business. He was not hired to teach sectarianism. But if the parent means to say, I do not send my child to school to have you teach him to fear God, and keep his commandments, to be temperate, honest and true, to be a good son and a good man, then the child is to be pitied for having such a father; and

with good reason might we tremble for all that we hold most dear, if such remonstrances were to be multiplied and to prevail.

In this connection I cannot refrain from earnestly recommending the daily reading of the scriptures, and prayer in all our schools, as eminently calculated to exert a powerful moral influence upon the scholars. It is melancholy to think, what swarms of children are growing up in Massachusetts, who will seldom if ever hear the voice of prayer, if they do not hear it in the schools; and to whom the bible will remain a sealed book if it be not opened there. I would not insist that every primary teacher should be absolutely required to open or close the school daily with prayer. Great and good as I think the influence of such an arrangement would be, it might be impossible, at present, to find a sufficient number of instructers otherwise well qualified, who are fitted to lead in this exercise. The number however, I believe, is steadily increasing. It is probably too late for me, but I hope that some of you, gentlemen, may live to see the time when the voice of prayer, and of praise too, will be heard in every school-house. Could I know that this would be the case, it would give me a confidence in the perpetuity of cur civil and religious liberties, which I should exceedingly rejoice to cherish, as I pass off from the stage.

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It is with good reason, that the warmest and most enlightened friends of popular education lay great stress upon the choice of school books. It is a subject upon which too much attention cannot be bestowed by the wise and good, who are called to counsel and labor in the great department of public instruction. The two prime

objects which should be kept constantly in view in the selection of books, are mental adaptation and moral influence. Such books ought to be chosen and introduced into the school, as are adapted to the ages and advancement of the scholars; and happily they are now everywhere brought within the reach of parents and committees. In this respect, as well as many others, our children enjoy much greater advantages than we did when we sat upon the high forms without backs, conning over our earliest lessons. Within the last few years, many admirable elementary books have been prepared to suit the capacities of children, and to "lead them on softly as they are able to bear it." If there is any fault in these. books, it is that they simplify too much, and contain too many baby pictures. But upon the whole, there is a marked improvement. The primary class books now used in our common schools, are decidedly better adapted to the purposes of early mental developement and culture, than the books which were used thirty years: ago.

As children advance from the simple rudiments of the alphabet and plain spelling, and begin to take an interest in reading, it is of the last importance that their class books should be at once interesting, instructive, and of a decidedly good moral tendency. It is not sufficient that every irreverent, profane and impure word and sentiment be excluded. The education of the popular mind and conscience demands something more than mere negatives. Every reading book, on whatever subject it treats, should have an unequivocal moral character; for its sentiments, whatever they may be, will be gradually wrought into the habits of thinking and action in the

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