to the infidel the right of
protection in his civil and political equality, but it grants him no
right to protection and support in his infidelity; for infidelity is not
a religion, but the denial of all religion. The American State is
Christian, and under the Christian law, and is based upon Christian
principles. It is bound to protect and enforce Christian morals and its
laws, whether assailed by Mormonism, Spiritism, Freelovism, Pantheism,
or Atheism. But the State does the contrary. For, I ask, is not the
State indirectly prohibiting the profession of Christianity by
establishing a system of education which prohibits all religious
instruction? The State forbids the teacher to speak a word on the
subject of religion.

The State says that "it is an admitted axiom that our form of
government, more than all others, depends on the _virtue and
intelligence of the people_. The State proposes to furnish this _virtue_
and _intelligence_ through the _Public Schools_." That is, the safety of
the State depends on the virtue and intelligence of the people, and the
latter is derived from the virtue and intelligence of the "State." But
where does the virtue and intelligence of the State come from? The only
answer on this theory is, from the people. So the "State" enlightens and
purifies the people, and the people enlighten and purify the "State."
The people support the State, the State supports the Public Schools, and
they support the State. If this is not what logicians call a "vicious
circle," it looks very much like it. It puts me in mind of the Brahmin's
theory of the support of the earth. The Hindoo says, "The world rests on
the back of an elephant--the elephant rests on the back of a turtle."
But what does the turtle rest on? So it is with our "_Public School
Brahmins_." They will tell you, with all the coolness of Hindoo
hypocrisy and pretension, that the "State depends on the schools--the
schools on the State or people," but they do not say what the turtle
stands on. This is the dilemma that all who rest society on the State,
or on an atheistical basis, get into. They would cut the world loose
from its assigned order of dependence on Divine Law, and "set it a-going
on its own hook." But the trouble is, they have no support for this
turtle; they have an earth without axis. The Public School savans would
have a self-supporting, a self-adjusting, and a self-created State,
balanced on nothing, resting on nothing, responsible