EDITOR'S TABLE. 



705 



" sovereign discretion " to extirpate the 

 family in the matter of education, if it 

 may take away a child as soon as it 

 is ready for the Kindergarten, and dic- 

 tate the whole course of its cultivation, 

 stamping its character with a view to 

 state objects, what else may it not do, 

 and what becomes of the vaunted free- 

 dom of the citizen? The doctrine be- 

 longs to despotism, and was first and 

 fitly practiced in Prussia as a means of 

 shaping subjects to the uses of kingly 

 power. 



And now what is the state that 

 claims such prerogatives in virtue of its 

 sovereignty, and proposes to take the 

 education of the whole community into 

 its own hands? Divested of the glam- 

 our that surrounds this venerable ab- 

 straction, that which remains of actual 

 reality is simply a lot of men got to- 

 gether to carry on the practical work 

 of government. The state lives in the 

 life of its representatives. It exists 

 only as embodied in its officials. Cer- 

 tain men are chosen to make, repeal, 

 and execute the laws, and these are 

 the state. The state can do whatever 

 they can do ; the state is whatever 

 they are. But we are not yet down to 

 the naked reality. The community is 

 divided into two great political parties, 

 and the one that beats by numbers at 

 election takes the government. Suc- 

 cessful office-seekers, therefore, consti- 

 tute the state. Those who succeed in 

 partisan politics are those who culti- 

 vate the art of partisan politics. "What 

 these arts are, and what is the general 

 quality of those who win by them, we 

 need not say. But it is notorious that 

 men of intelligence, integrity, and char- 

 acter are not successful partisans. It 

 is the intriguers, the wire-pullers, and 

 the crafty, unscrupulous managers in 

 caucus and convention that win, and 

 these men form the state. "We do not 

 exaggerate: witness the last Legislat- 

 ure of our own State. Humiliating as 

 it may be to our patriotic pride, every 

 candid person knows it to be a fact 



VOL. XIX. 45 



that an election under our representa- 

 tive system, with its inevitable caucus 

 and convention machinery, is simply a 

 winnowing out of superior men and 

 the choice of the worst to take the of- 

 fices of state. 



We need not dilate upon the conse- 

 quences ; they are known and read of 

 all men, and the lesson they teach has 

 been freely drawn. If any worthy or 

 meritorious thing is to be done, the sig- 

 nificant exclamation is, '' In Heaven's 

 name keep it out of politics ! " Such, 

 indeed, is the growing disgust with po- 

 litical doings that it is now quixotical- 

 ly proposed to take even office-holding 

 out of politics. And, yet, there are 

 those who would intrust our politicians 

 ignorant, self-seeking, unscrupulous, 

 and corrupt as the great mass of them 

 are with the whole work of education 

 in society. Who is so senseless as to 

 look for educational progress in such a 

 condition of things? The system will 

 be turned to the purposes of demagog- 

 ism as surely as effect follows cause. 

 The management of institutions of 

 learning will become an art of getting 

 state appropriations. The educational 

 system will become rigid in proportion 

 to the extent and complexity of its gra- 

 dations, and will resist all improvement. 

 Teachers, inspectors, superintendents, 

 become office-holders and stipendiaries 

 under the Government, and all ani- 

 mated with the common purpose of 

 getting their salaries increased. Edu- 

 cation, as a function of the states, must 

 become a branch of mercenary politics. 

 And this system, by its vicious growth, 

 and its prestige of authority, and the 

 boundless means at its command, must 

 rival and overcome and extinguish all 

 that private and voluntary interest in 

 the work of education to which we are 

 indebted for the past achievements in 

 this important field of effort. Good 

 may come from state education, but it 

 will not be unmixed good, and it is at 

 least an open question whether the 

 evils of the system, where it is fully 



