EDITOR'S TABLE. 



843 



brings anofher class within the reach 

 of dangers from which they would 

 otherwise have stood entirelj' aloof. 

 The man who can neither read nor 

 write generally has a feeling of his 

 own weakness, and is thrown back on 

 his natural shrewdness and knowl- 

 edge of things for self -protection, 

 while a little school education, 

 though of the shallowest kind, often 

 puffs up its possessor to an amazing 

 sense of self-sufficiency. 



No one, we trust, will misunder- 

 stand the drift or purpose of these 

 remarks. We wish in the first place 

 to expi*ess our disapproval of the il- 

 liberal policy which would shut the 

 door of this vast country, with its 

 immense resources, in the face of a 

 healthy, able-bodied immigi'ant, sim- 

 ply because he has not learned to 

 read and write; and in the second 

 place, to emphasize the position we 

 have so often taken, that the mere 

 ability to read and write is no safe- 

 guard whatever of character, no 

 guarantee of the course in life which 

 the individual will afterward pursue. 

 There is in it the potentiality of fur- 

 ther growth in knowledge, but there 

 is also the potentiality of a life of 

 scheming, of a life of sensuality, of a 

 life of lawlessness. For one who can 

 read there are useful books and pa- 

 pers to be had with very little trouble ; 

 but there are pernicious ones to be 

 had with even less. The problem to- 

 day is far less what to do with our 

 illiterates than what to do with a 

 considerable body of our literates, 

 applying that term to all who can 

 read and write ; and to pretend that 

 the welfare of the state is threatened 

 if an almost imperceptible percent- 

 age of illiterate foreigners is added 

 yearly to our seventy millions of 

 population is hardly less than hypo- 

 critical. 



The true safeguards of national 

 prosperity have little to do with legis- 

 lation of this character. They lie 



in respect for law, in a sense of jus- 

 tice between man and man, in a sense 

 of responsibility on the part of those 

 who through wealth possess power 

 and social influence. They lie also 

 in the faithfulness of public officers 

 in the discharge of their duties, and 

 in the recognition by every citizen of 

 the truth that his actions count in 

 the general sum of influences by 

 which the fortunes of the state are 

 molded for good or for evil. They 

 lie, we need hardly say, in the right 

 discharge by parents of their duties 

 toward their children, and in the 

 general soundness and purity of fam- 

 ily life. They lie, finally, in a lib- 

 eral, humane, and righteous public 

 opinion, by which public policy is 

 guided into right channels, and the 

 evils which sj^ring from diseased 

 parts of the body politic are kept in 

 check. These are the things we need 

 to be concerned about, and which we 

 must be concerned about if the na- 

 tion is to prosper. Then, sooner or 

 later, we must come to that regime 

 of liberty which gives free scope to 

 the activities and better sentiments 

 of all. We must come to a belief 

 that a vast amount of our intermed- 

 dling with the laws of supply and 

 demand and the natural tendencies 

 of things has been vain and hurtful. 

 Until we reach this point our na- 

 tional prosperity will be on a more 

 or less precarious basis, and our na- 

 tional character will not attain its 

 best development. 



A NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF 

 SCIENCE. 



The proposal has been seriously 

 made in the columns of our con- 

 temporary Science that all the dif- 

 ferent scientific bureaus under the 

 Government at Washington should 

 be gathered into one great depart- 

 ment of science under a ministerial 

 head. The proposition is professedly 



