n excellent object--and
here is the great danger, for we are deluded by this
pretext--under the pretext of spreading education and waging
war against ignorance, infidelity is spread, war is waged
against religion; and thus, whether we will or no, we rush on
to the ruin of all order, moral and social. And we, the
Bishops, who are as desirous as others, and perhaps more
desirous than others, to see spread far and wide the blessings
of education, the education of children, female education, the
education of our whole people, for this is by excellence a
Christian work, we are accused of being enemies of education,
because we oppose anti-Christian and anti-social education.'"

The first fact mentioned by the learned writer is the existence of
schools, which are called "_professional schools for females_," into
which young girls are received at twelve years of age and upwards, for
the purpose of continuing their education and learning a profession.
These schools have been founded by women, free-thinkers, who formally
and expressly declare it to be their object to train the youth of their
own sex in rationalism and infidelity. The following incident shows the
impious end for which these schools have been founded: One of the
principal teachers died, and over her grave her husband pronounced these
words,--"I will tell you, for it is my duty to tell you, that if this
funeral is that of a free-thinker" [unaccompanied by any religious
ceremony], "it is so not only by my wish, but also and chiefly because
such was the desire of my dear wife." He adds that she had devoted
herself to "the great work of spreading education and _morality without
religion_, because she had no faith except in _learning and in
justice_; she was of those who, having once seen and comprehended these
truths, can have no other beacon to guide them _in life, or at the hour
of death_." Round that grave, whose occupant had rejected religion and
its ministrations in life and in death, stood three hundred girls,
pupils of those "_professional schools_," holding bouquets in their
hands, and throwing flowers on the coffin of their mistress. The schools
are of a piece with the teachers. Ten hours are spent in them, but all
religious instruction is strictly forbidden, under the pretext that they
are free schools, "_open to children of all persuasions, without
religious distinction_." The founders of these schools p