EDITOR'S TABLE. 



843 



try is a lottery, at another a mining 

 speculation ; here a gift concert, there 

 a family newspaper sent free for six 

 months with valuable premiums into 

 the bargain; one man has a remedy 

 for every form of disease, another is 

 prepared to reveal an easy and de- 

 lightful way of making a fortune in a 

 few weeks: it matters little what the 

 pretense is, the fly is no sooner cast 

 than some silly fish begin to rise. Those 

 who pride themselves on being more 

 knowing than their neighbors nibble a 

 little at the bait at first, and enter into 

 correspondence with the advertiser. 

 The latter knows just what to do with 

 such customers. He sends them the 

 most solemn protestations that his busi- 

 ness is bonajide, and his personal repu- 

 tation beyond all possibility of attack. 

 He is prepared to show testimonials by 

 the thousand as to the thorough up- 

 rightness and eminently satisfactory 

 character of his dealings. That is 

 enough : the money comes forward by 

 the next mail, and one more gudgeon is 

 hooked. 



It may be asked what all this has to 

 do with science. Well, a good deal ; or, 

 if not with science, at least with the 

 want of it. What are the schools of 

 the country doing, let us ask, that the 

 Post-Office should have to step in to 

 save the free and enlightened citizens 

 of this republic from the consequences 

 of their own ignorance and folly? The 

 object of popular education, we make 

 bold to say, ought to be to give the 

 people sense ; yet here we have indis- 

 putable evidence that large masses of 

 our population don't know enough to 

 protect themselves against the most 

 barefaced forms of imposture. The 

 intellectual quality most largely devel- 

 oped in certain extensive regions of so- 

 ciety would seem to be credulity. How 

 does this fact tally with our supposed 

 educational progress? Evidently we 

 are here face to face with a question 

 which should come home very directly 

 to all who are interested in public edu- 



cation ; and we would respectfully ask 

 teachers and trustees to consider wheth- 

 er, through the schools, something 

 might not be done to diminish an evil 

 which really has assumed very large 

 proportions. Let private education pur- 

 sue what ends it will ; but public or 

 state education, we hold, should aim, 

 above all, at the production of good and 

 efficient citizens. But a man is not an 

 efficient citizen who is so grossly credu- 

 lous as the majority of those who fall a 

 prey to the advertising quack or confi- 

 dence-man. A part, and no mean part, 

 of the exercises of every school should 

 consist of the imparting to the pupils 

 of sound practical precepts bearing on 

 civil and social life. We want to de- 

 velop common sense in the young ; we 

 want to give the boys a manly bearing 

 and manly ideas; we want to qualify 

 the girls to act with sound judgment 

 and right womanly feeling in the sev- 

 eral positions in life they may be called 

 upon to fill. We want to show that the 

 lust of wealth is a poor motive for any 

 man's or woman's chief activity. Bat 

 how is all this to be done? The mere 

 teaching of arithmetic, geography, and 

 grammar will not do it. It can best be 

 done, as it seems to us, by a scientific, 

 that is to say, a rational exposition, on 

 the one hand, of the principles which 

 go to produce the dignity, security, and 

 happiness both of nations and of indi- 

 viduals ; and, on the other, of the causes 

 which lead to national decay and in- 

 dividual misery. In connection with 

 such a course of lessons as we have 

 now in view, it would be well to glance 

 at some of the methods by which dis- 

 honest men prey upon society, and, by 

 way of illustration, we can hardly im- 

 agine anything more serviceable than 

 an analysis of the advertisements and 

 circulars of some of the " frauds " op- 

 erated through the post-office. The 

 children who heard these things ex- 

 posed would carry home the informa- 

 tion to their parents ; and the net re- 

 sult in many cases would be an en- 



