ck man, Friday, is doing for
Christianity, for liberty, for civilization, and for the good of the
world. Some of these details are regarded as too dry and uninteresting,
and others too long for admission in the daily press. Much is written
and said about the benefits of education. The rudiments are alike
important in both kinds of civilization, American and European. But
after acquiring the rudimentary knowledge, the paths of education in the
two hemispheres diverge from each other at right angles. The further the
American travels in the labyrinths of that system of education, so
fashionable in Europe, purposely designed to bury active minds in the
rubbish of past ages, or tangle them in metaphysical abstractions and
hide from them the beauty of truth and the matter-of-fact world around
them, the less he is qualified to appreciate the blessings and benefits
of republican institutions, and the more apt he is to be found in
opposition to American policy. By hard studies on subjects of no
practical importance, physical or moral, the European system of
education drives independence out of the mind, and virtue out of the
heart, as a pre-requisite qualification for obedience to governments
resting upon diplomacy, falsehood, artificial and unnatural distinctions
among men. But in the United States, the various State governments being
founded on moral truths and nature's laws, and not on the opinions of a
privileged order, our system of education should be in harmony with our
system of government; our youth should be taught to love virtue for
virtue's sake; to study nature, bow to her truths, and to give all the
homage that the crowned heads receive in Europe, to nature and to truth.
Our government sets up no religious creed or standard of morals, but
leaves every one perfectly free in religion and morals, to be governed
by the Bible as _he understands it_, provided he does not trespass upon
the rights of others. The principal books in our libraries give little
or no aid in qualifying our youth for public office or to direct the
legislation or policy of a government resting upon natural laws. The
practical operation of our system is scarcely anywhere else recorded
than in church history, gospel triumph, legislative reports, reviews,
and pamphlets. There the facts may be found, but they are isolated and
disconnected, teaching nothing; but could be made a most potent means,
not only of instruction in the practical operation of our