108 ON THE KXPEDIKNCY AND MEANS OF 



CHAPTER II. 

 THE PRESENT DEGRADED STATE OF THE OFFICE. 



The dignity of an office is the authority of its law ; whether the 

 productions of science and the arts, or the constitution and fabric of 

 a government, which necessarily precedes the authority or office of ei- 

 ther, the office ascends above the works by which it was created, and 

 becomes their law ; and it is the just and only security of knowledge, 

 that as the faculties of the soul are subordinate to the office of the 

 soul, so the offices of learning are pre-eminent over learning itself, as 

 the model and representative of their utmost reach. Nor can the 

 dignity of an office be subordinate but by the destruction of its duties. 

 Neither the indiscretions nor crimes of the servants of the church, 

 the senate, nor the bar, could deject the dignity of either offices, 

 whereas each office would appropriate to itself the virtues and cele- 

 brity of its officer. These professions have a fixed elevation in soci- 

 ety, that not even the loosest conduct of their professors could sub- 

 due ; in the comparison they alone would be vitiated in public es- 

 teem ; in all such instances the men sink and not the office, which 

 must be co-existent and co-extensive with the utility and excellence 

 of its duties. There is one violent exception to this rule. The office 

 of teaching derives neither interest nor importance from the charac- 

 ter of the teacher, or the reputation of the taught. Even that first 

 and most vital of offices, which gives to the soul of childhood its first 

 impulses, illumines it with the first rays of intelligence, and quickens 

 the new-born affections and tender sympathies of a pure and undefiled 

 spirit, is prostrated among all that is abject in circumstances and con- 

 temptible in opinion. The office contrary to a general law is subor- 

 dinate to the duties of the office, so that no fixed character' is attached 

 to it, but it is higher or lower relative to the station and success of 

 the educator. Familiarized as we are with the degraded state of the 

 educative office, and regarding schools as a mere trading occupation. 



Wocchenschnft fur Menschenhilduny — The want of such records is proved by 

 nothing so much as that this question occurs. If a dancing master, an actor, 

 a singer, a modist, or a dilletante of fashion and luxury, celebrated in his art, 

 should announce a work for instruction in either art, would it be asked, 

 wherefore ? But with the announcement of a record for education, this 

 question rises upon the lips of so many. 



