15 



Of the foundation of these schools, Lord Macaulay 

 once said in parliament : " Illustrious forever in history 

 were the founders of the Commonwealth of Massachu- 

 setts ; though their love of freedom of conscience was 

 illimitable and indestructible they could see nothing ser- 

 vile or degrading in the principle that the State should 

 take upon itself the charge of the education of the people. 

 In the year 1642, they passed their first legislative enact- 

 ment on this subject, in the preamble of which they 

 distinctly pledged themselves to this principle, that 

 education was a matter of the deepest possible impor- 

 tance and the greatest possible interest to all nations and 

 to all communities, and that as such it was, in an emi- 

 nent degree, deserving of the peculiar attention of the 

 State." 



The matter of race has much to do with success in 

 farming. Down to the Revolution, the people of New 

 England were, almost without exception, of pure English 

 blood. The same statement is nearly as true to-day of 

 the farmers of Essex County. As distinctive as the 

 worship of the crocodile b}'- the dwellers on the Nile, or 

 the adoration of the god of AVar by the Romans, has 

 ever been the Anglo-Saxon reverence for land. 



With love of the land there is also associated regard and 

 veneration for trees. It is true that the fathers waged 

 war upon the forests, but that was a necessity of their 

 situation. They wanted the sunshine to warm their 

 virgin soil. They needed the wood for fuel, for rafters, 

 sills and boards. Besides the requirement of cleared 

 lands for cultivation, there was ever the thought that the 

 clearings mi\de so many less lurking places for the skulk- 



