7



eration all the elements of physical and intellectual greatness,
and constitutes, at 'ast, the only distinction between the bar-
barous tribe and civilzed nation, between the abject slaves of
despotic power, and enlightened and independent freemen.
To wield this mightiest of all earthly powers is really to pos-
sess the mastery of the world, of all nature, and of man.
   It is not surprising, then, that the sagacious potentates of
Europe, with a wise prevision of the ibevitable future, are
seeking diligently now to develope the intellectual resources
of their people, and that they cultivate the masses, even on
selfish principles, as they would any other portion of their
royal doniain, as the surest source of revenue in peace, the
cheapest and mightiest bulwark against a foreign foe. How
much more should each free and enlightened State make
abundant provision for the education of her children, to train
them up as men and citizens; that they may occupy the
places their fathers filled, administer the institutions their fa-
thers founded, and perpetuate the freedom and the glory their
fathers won by blood.
   If man were, indeed, an insolated individual, born into the
world without any relation to his kind, his future develop-
ment involving no other interests but his own, might safe-
ly be confided to himself. Were he the member of a single
family only, bound by no common tie of interest or duty to
society around, his education and whole future character
might wisely be entrusted to the exclusive guardianship of
that patriarchal administration. Were there one universal
church extending over all the land, including all its individu-
als and families, pervading all by its spirit of purity and
love, and really securing the highest intellectual and mar dl
culture of the whole, then Arnold's devout imagination of a
church coextensive with the State, and a Christian State
merged in and identical with the church, would have been
alrearly realized; and the education of the whole people, along
with every other function of the State, might be confided as