642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of both sexes have not only open to them the advantages of the 

 district, intermediate, and high schools, but possess the privilege of 

 attending, free of charge, the University of Cincinnati. The course 

 of instruction in their long-extended curriculum is of a very high 

 character. From school to school the student passes, till he goes out 

 into the world from the university with the broad teaching which will 

 make him hold his own proudly in the stirring times in which we 

 live." 



In what this school is, as an organic element, preparing in American 

 cities, we see in miniature the still wider organization growing up in 

 the several States, preparatory to the completed national organization 

 of the ideal American System of Graded Free Schools. The 

 cities, in the American State school system, under State law, by means 

 of local levies, limited to the property of the city or district, with 

 scarcely an exception, have built up this class of schools. The common 

 school, with its corps of teachers, is followed by the high-school, 

 with higher instructors and added supervision, and this again by the 

 university, either for the city or the State, with a still higher order 

 of instruction and supervision ; and the organism is complete, each 

 element in the series working apart but in harmony with the 

 whole. 



But finally we come to the religious question, which the ingenious 

 objector to state schools has arrayed in its full force. Both in Eng- 

 land and in America this question continues, to some extent, to be a 

 disturbing element in the school problem. Mr. Herbert is not entirely 

 free from the mist which this element creates in all sectarian atmos- 

 pheres. He gives expression to his convictions in the following ex- 

 plicit language : 



"I can not escape a few words on the much-vexed religious ques- 

 tion. Under our present system the Nonconformists are putting a 

 grievous strain upon their own principles. Whoever fairly faces the 

 question must admit that the same set of arguments which condemns 

 a national religion also condemns a national system of education. It is 

 hard to pronounce sentence on the one and absolve the other. Does a 

 national Church compel some to support a system to which they are 

 opposed ? So does a national system of education. Does the one 

 exalt the principle of majorities over the individual conscience ? So 

 does the other. Does a national Church imply a distrust of the peo- 

 ple, of their willingness to make sacrifices, of their capacity to manage 

 their own affairs ? So does a national system of education. Does the 

 one chill and repress the higher meanings and purposes of formalism ? 

 So does the other." 



The contrast between a national Church and a national system of 

 education is quite clear to all persons, although there are several points 

 of resemblance in their application. The two curricula are different 

 in all those peculiar specialties in which each has its appropriate 



