e community was divided into a
thousand contending sects, who hold nothing in common, and whose sole
objects are, the annoyance and destruction of each other. But if we
leave out of view some hundreds, or if you please, some thousands of
theological controversialists, who manage the public discussions, and
say and do all that really comes before the public on this subject, it
will be found, that there is vastly more religious truth admitted by
common consent, among the people of New England, than is generally
supposed. This common ground, I shall endeavor briefly to describe. For
it is very plain, that the teacher must, in ordinary cases, confine
himself to it. By common consent, however, I do not mean the consent of
every body; I mean that of the great majority of serious, thinking men.

But let us examine, first, for a moment, what right any member of the
community has to express and to disseminate his opinions, with a view to
the inquiry, whether the teacher is really bound to confine himself to
what he can do, on this subject, with the common consent of his
employers.

The French nation has been, for some time, as is well known, strongly
agitated with questions of politics. It is with difficulty that public
tranquillity is preserved. Every man takes sides. Now in this state of
things, a wealthy gentleman, opposed to the revolutionary projects so
constantly growing up there, and from principle and feeling, strongly
attached to a monarchial government, wishes to bring up his children,
with the same feelings which he himself cherishes. He has a right to do
so. No matter if his opinions are wrong. He ought, it will be generally
supposed in this country, to be republican. I suppose him to adopt
opinions, which will generally, by my readers, be considered wrong, that
I may bring more distinctly to view the right he has to educate his
children as _he thinks_ it proper that they should be educated. He may
be wrong to _form_ such opinions. But the opinions once formed, he has a
right, with which no human power can justly interfere, to educate his
children in conformity with those opinions. It is alike the law of God
and nature, that the father should control, as he alone is responsible,
the education of his child.

Now under these circumstances, he employs an American mechanic, who is
residing in Paris, to come to his house and teach his children the use
of the lathe. After some time, he comes into their little workshop, a