TWENTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 1845-1847. 349 



Tom, Dick, and Harry; and then, as a wise and witty female writer of 

 the day expressed it, "they will become Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Richard, 

 and Mr. Henry." They may not become profound scholars, erudite 

 graduates; nor is that necessary. Well to know common things is 

 the essential. It is not elaborate learning that most improves the 

 world or that exerts most influence in its government. Working-day 

 knowledge is simple, almost in the ratio of its importance; and Milton 

 has told us 



That not to know at large of things remote 



From use, obscure and subtle, but to know 



That which before us lies, in daily life, 



Is the prime wisdom. 



The ancient masters realized not these truths. With the millions 

 they had no sympathy. In private, and to the initiated few alone, did 

 they deign to unroll the mystical page of their philosophy; they 

 scorned to expose it to the gaze of the profane vulgar. 



Thanks to the stirring spirit of progressive improvement, all this, 

 in our age, is changed. By modern teachers the people are spoken of, 

 spoken to, cared for, instructed. To the people the characteristic 

 literature of the day is addressed. What has become of the ponderous 

 folio in which the learning of the Middle Ages used to issue, to a small 

 and exclusive circle, its solemn manifesto? Now we have the slender 

 pamphlet, the popular tract, the cheap periodical, cast forth even to 

 the limits of civilization, penetrating into every nook and corner of 

 the land; often light, often worthless, but often, too, instructive, 

 effective; written for the masses, reaching the masses, and awaking, 

 far and wide, a consciousness of deficiency, a spirit of inquiry, a desire 

 to know more. 



The people govern in America. Ere long the people will govern 

 throughout the habitable earth. And they are coming into power in 

 an age when questions of mighty import rise up for their decision. 

 They who govern should be wise. They who govern should be edu- 

 cated. They who decide mighty questions should be enlightened. 

 Then, as we value wise government, as we would have the destinies of 

 our kind shaped by an enlightened tribunal, let the schools of the 

 people, and the teachers who preside in these schools, and the system 

 that prevails in these schools, be our peculiar care. 



We can not reform the world, no, nor provide instruction for a 

 great nation, by any direction given to half a million of dollars. But 

 something, even in such a cause, may be effected by it something, I 

 devoutly believe, that shall be felt all over our broad land. The 

 essential is that, if little we can do, that little be well done, be done 

 faithfully, in the spirit of the trust, in the spirit of the age, in a 

 spirit not restrictive, not exclusive, but diffusive, universal. 



Mr. G. W. JONES modified his motion as follows: 



