hers; but the latter
were, for the most part, founders of sects in politics, morals,
philosophy, religion, or the habits of daily life; while its schools
were frequented and sustained by those who sought to build on the
civilization of the times such structures as their tastes conceived or
their opinions dictated.

There were not in Athens or Rome, according to the American idea, any
schools for the people; and Carlyle, Brownson, and Emerson, are such
teachers in kind, though not in power and influence, as were Socrates,
Plato, and Aristotle. These men were leaders as well as teachers, and
their followers were disciples and controversialists rather than pupils.
But it is not possible for modern leaders in politics, philosophy, and
social life, to rival the ancients. Manual labor is not more divided and
subdivided than is the influence of the human intellect. The newspaper
has inspired every man with the love of self-judgment, and the common
school has qualified him, in some degree, for its exercise. The
ancients, whose names and fame have come down to us, taught by
conversations, discussions, and lectures; the moderns, as Carlyle,
Brownson, and Emerson, by lectures, essays, and reviews. But these
systems are quite inadequate to meet the wants of American civilization.

Indeed, however men of talent may strive, there cannot be another
Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle; for the printing-press has come, and
their occupation has gone. Teachers were philosophers, pupils were
followers and disciples, while learning was devoted to the support of
speculations and theories.

But, while we have no such teachers as those of Athens, and need no such
schools as they founded, we have teachers and schools whose character
and genius correspond to the age in which we live. Teaching is a
profession; not merely an ignoble pursuit, nor a toy of scholastic
ambition, but a profession enjoying the public confidence, requiring
great talents, demanding great industry, and securing, permit me to say,
great rewards. To be the leader of a sect or the founder of a school, is
something; but the acceptable teacher is superior to either; he is the
first and chief exponent of a popular sovereignty which seeks happiness
and immortality for itself by elevating and refining the parts of which
it is composed. The ancient teacher gathered his hearers, disciples, and
pupils, in the streets, groves, and public squares. The modern teacher
is comparatively seclu