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and manufactures are carried to the highest perfection. Would you 

 perfect the industry of a people, then perfect their system of education. 

 And when we perfect their system of education we refer to education 

 in all its parts and degrees : — education of the highest forms to make 

 philosophers and men of science to do that higher work, which neces- 

 sarily belongs to a class exclusively devoted to thought, observation and 

 experiment ; and education for the working classes, so that work and 

 thought may go on together according to the laws of our being, and the 

 constitution of the world in which we live. 



You are aware that I have just returned from an extensive tour in 

 Europe. A considerable jiortion of my time has been spent in Germa- 

 ny, and particularly in the Kingdom of Prussia, for the purpose of 

 making otiservations upon the educational system and the industrial arts 

 of the people. On this occasion I cannot enter upon those details which 

 I hope to embody in a Report to the Regents of the University. I 

 will, therefore only state in general, that in Prussia I have found the 

 most perfect example of the proportionate and harmonious development 

 of the two great forms of industry — the industry of the hand, and the 

 industry of thought. In referring to the Pmssian system here, I do 

 not say, that in being worthy of admiration and imitation, it may not 

 still require modifications under our peculiar institutions ; I wish to be 

 regarded as stating facts and not as discussing formally the merits of 

 the system. First then, as respects the educational system of Prussia, 

 I remark, that it is a system designed both to make men of the high- 

 est accomplishments in science and literature — to raise up a learned 

 class, and to diffuse education among all the working classes. 



The law of Prussia is, that every man shall send his children to school 

 until they are fourteen yeai-s of age ; at his own expense, if he has the 

 means of paying for education, at the expense of the State, if he has 

 not the means. Children, however, are permitted to be employed in 

 the manufactories at twelve years of age ; but, then the proprietors of 

 the manufactories are compelled to connect a school with their estab- 

 lishments, that the education of the children in the primary branches 

 may be completed. The Gymnasia, are designed particularly for the 

 higher forms of education. Pupils may leave the primary or common 

 schools, and enter the Gymnasia. But more commonly those who aim 

 at a higher education, enter the Gymnasia at once, say at six years of 



